DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
EQUAL PAY CONFLICT
EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995) has had a major impact on employment law, with the received wisdom being that it was intended to go beyond ordinary notions of equality (the basis of the rest of discrimination law) and give greater rights to disabled employees, as a matter of social policy. Indeed, one argument has always been that it really should have been entitled the Disability Protection Act, in order precisely to differentiate it from other discrimination headings. However, this interpretation has been given a rude shock this month by the House of Lords in a landmark decision going to the root of the legislation. That case has dominated the employment law news, but the month has also seen significant developments in relation to permissible comparators in equal pay cases, the possible conflict between industrial relations and EC law and the drafting of compromise agreements in cases where the employee leaves under a cloud.
THE MEANING OF DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
The decision of the House of
