LONDON (AP):
THE HIGH Court upheld Britain's equality laws for workers yesterday, disappointing trade unions that argue that the rules fail to protect lesbian and gay workers from discrimination by 'faith-based' employers.
Justice David Richards rejected arguments from the unions that 2003 Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations are incompatible with European law.
"To treat the regulations as reducing the level of protection (from sex discrimination) seems to me to require a distorted view of their effect," Richards said.
EQUAL TREATMENT
FOR WORKERS
The laws were introduced in Britain to give effect to a 2000 European Council Directive that provided guidelines for equal treatment for workers, including the prevention of discrimination relating to sexual orientation.
Lawyers acting for seven unions representing around 2 million workers and led by the Trades Union Council argued that the British laws had failed to give full effect to the guidelines, and that they allowed employers to exclude same-sex couples from pension and benefits rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
The laws were therefore 'incompatible' with Britain's European Community law obligations and the European Convention on Human Rights, they claimed.
