[1997] IRLR 432 (EAT)
NOTES

  • Lewis Woolf Griptight Ltd v Corfield, EAT on 25th March 1997, reported at [1997] IRLR 432.
  • The full text judgment in this case is available free of charge on the BAILII website

    1. Authority for the proposition that it is unlawful sex discrimination for an employer to dismiss a woman whose contract of employment is still in existence because she is unable to return to work at the end of her maternity leave (or a statutory extension of it); and

    2. an indication of how the courts regard the legal relationship of an employer and employee while the latter is on maternity leave; and

    3. an example of a case in which an employment contract was held to have continued during the employee's absence on maternity leave and not to have automatically ended on expiry of the statutory period for which the employee had the statutory right to return to work.

    CAUTION - this case was decided before the introduction in December 1999 of new rules governing maternity leave which (inter alia) replaced ERA 1996 "old" ss.71 to 85 with "new" ss.71 to 80 (see Maternity/maternity leave ). Relevance of this note may therefore now be limited.


    FINISH>
    prepared Oct97;