News

Protection against discrimination does not extend to volunteers

28 January 2011

The court ruled against a woman who claimed she had been discriminated against on grounds of disability, after she was told to stop volunteering for Mid-Sussex Citizens Advice.

The woman, named only as "X" by the court, originally lost an employment tribunal hearing against Citizens Advice over the matter in November 2009. Her appeal against the verdict, which included a representation by the EHRC, was based on European equal treatment legislation covering those in "occupation", a definition the woman argued ought to apply to volunteers. But her case was unanimously rejected by the court of appeal.

The EHRC had intervened in the case.

Reported in The Guardian, John Wadham, the EHRC's legal group director, said the ruling was unfair and suggested it might yet be challenged in the supreme court. "We are disappointed that the court of appeal has decided that volunteers do not have legal protection from workplace discrimination," he said. "If discrimination laws don't apply to this sector it will be legal for organisations when taking on people to discriminate against groups such as the disabled or ethnic minorities.

In reaching his verdict, the appeal judge Lord Justice Elias said: "Volunteers are extensively employed throughout Europe and it is unrealistic to believe they were intended to be covered by concepts of employment and occupation which would not normally embrace them."

The Guardian’s reporting of the case can be found here, and the full judgment here.

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