Many thanks to all those who joined us for our AGM on Wednesday 25th January 2025
The new Executive Committee was duly appointed - as there were fewer nominations than places on the Committee, all nominees are automatically co-opted.
So the list of new Committee members is as per the agenda:
Chair: Nicola Redhead
Treasurer: Colin Davidson
Director/Trustee:
- Chris Fry
- Gemma Grant
- Peter Kumar
- Declan O’Dempsey
- Jonathan Rackham
- Dave Ratchford
- Maurice Serrell
- Annapurna Waughray
We send a fond farewell to Laura Redman but extend a heartfelt greeting to three new members:
Chris Fry, Peter Kumar and Maurice Serrell
We also extend our sincere gratitude to our guest speaker. We were treated to a very thought-provoking talk by Jessica Franklin of Outer Temple Chambers who discussed s.19A Equality Act 2010, introduced under the Equality Act 2010 (Amendment) Regulations 2023, and discussed in the EAT's decision in British Airways plc v Rollett & Others [2024] EAT 131. Jessica was junior counsel for the successful claimants in Rollett, where the EAT found that it had jurisdiction to hear associative indirect discrimination claims, brought under s19 EqA, by claimants who do not themselves have protected characteristics but have suffered the same disadvantage as those who had - therefore extending the right to hear a claim of indirect discrimination from them.
The EAT made its decision after comparing the facts of the Rollett case to the outcome and the CJEU’s judgment in CHEZ Razpredelenie Bulgaria AD v Komisia za zashita ot discriminatsia (Case C-83/14) [2015] IRLR 746 (‘CHEZ’). Given that the UK had left the EU by the time the EAT heard the appeal, the respondents in Rollett argued that the new s.19A and regulations relied on in Chez were ultra vires as EU law was no longer supreme to domestic law. Therefore the EAT had no jurisdiction to hear the case. As Rollett was prior to 1st January 2024, the courts and tribunal service referred to the Marleasing Principle, which interprets domestic law in accordance with EU principles. The EAT used its reserved judgment that they were not ultra vires and proceeded to compare the outcome of CHEZ to the argument in Rollett. Furthermore, the EAT held that this type of claim is now preserved in s19A Equality Act for future associative indirect discrimination cases brought after 1st January 2024 to be heard.
You can view Jessica’s slides for this talk here