Discrimination Claims and Jurisdiction

The circumstances in which employees who work primarily outside Great Britain may bring discrimination claims has been considered recently by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

An individual may bring a claim for discrimination if such discrimination occurs during employment ‘at an establishment in Great Britain.’ Employment is regarded as being at an establishment in Great Britain if the employee does his work wholly or partly in Great Britain. The meaning of ‘partly’ has been considered by the EAT recently in the case of British Airways v Mak. This case relates to employees of BA who were ordinarily based and resident in Hong Kong but flew between Hong Kong and London and attended training in London. They were held to work ‘partly’ in Great Britain.