Coleman v Attridge Law and Steve Law
In a case of huge significance to disability discrimination law, the Advocate General (AG) of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said that the Equal Treatment Directive should apply not only to the disabled, but also people associated with them, such as carers.
In Coleman v Attridge Law and Steve Law, Mrs Coleman worked as a legal secretary and gave birth in 2002 to a disabled son for whom she was the primary carer. She claimed in 2005 that the firm had discriminated against her, treating her less favourably than employees with non-disabled children.
The AG has now said that because the directive does not allow discrimination on the ground of disability, then the same principle must apply even if the claimant is someone who is not disabled herself but is associated with a disabled person. The “ground” of discrimination is still disability.
Although the case was brought under disability discrimination law, the AG has indicated that the same principle would also apply to any of the other grounds of discrimination – age, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and race.
This “opinion” is not binding on the ECJ, which will decide the case later in the year for itself, but it usually follows the AG’s opinion. If it does, then the case will have to come back to the tribunal that referred it to the ECJ to decide if it can interpret the Disability Discrimination Act (which has slightly different wording to the directive) in the same way.