Scotland

Claimant A, a salesperson at a department store, alleged that her supervisor discriminated against her for being a woman of menopausal age.  The claimant had worked in retail for 37 years and had received multiple awards for being a top performer.  While she initially got along with her supervisor, in May 2017, when the claimant was going through menopause, her supervisor’s attitude towards her changed.  Her supervisor would frequently harass and humiliate her in front of her colleagues and customers, specifically commenting about her menopause.

Here, the employment judge found that the claimant was entitled to lost wages for the period between her resignation in December 2018 and the start of her new position in September 2019 on the grounds that the claimant “suffered a substantial reduction in her mental wellbeing” as a result of improper treatment and discrimination from her employer in relation to the claimant’s onset of menopause and was thereby entitled to damages emanating from injury to feelings. The claimant alleged that her store manager discriminated against her for being a woman of menopausal age.

The Domestic Abuse Act (Scotland) of 2018 came into force on April 1, 2019. It modifies and expands upon portions of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act of 1995. The act expands the definition of domestic abuse to include psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behavior.  It criminalizes both psychological and physical harm directed to a partner or an ex-partner.

Scotland’s domestic abuse legislation came into force on April 1, 2019.  The statute defines domestic abuse broadly, including both psychological (“fear, alarm and distress”) and physical harm directed to a partner or an ex-partner.  See Section 1.  The statute defines a “partner” as a spouse or civil partner, a person with whom one lives as a spouse, or person with whom one is in an “intimate personal relationship.”  Section 11.2.  Abuse is “violent, threatening, or intimidating” behavior that may consist of controlling a victim’s daily activities, causing

The appellant was accused of assaulting two partners over an extended period of time. He was charged with sexual assault, and assault of complainant (K); and contraventions of s.39(1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, assault, rape, and attempted murder of a second complainant (J).

Here, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the appeal of the respondent employer and rejected a prior holding of the Edinburgh Employment Tribunal that found the respondent employer liable for having violated Section 1(3) of the Equal Pay Act for having given a male staff member a more favorable employment contract than two female co-workers and having done so without genuine, material, and sex-neutral factors accounting for this disparity.  The claimants in this appeal were two female employees of Scottish Enterprise, a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government focused

The claimants in this appeal were two female employees of Scottish Enterprise, a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government focused on economic development.  The women alleged that a male co-worker doing work of equal value had a more favorable employment contract, and that there were no genuine, material, and sex-neutral factors accounting for this disparity.  They alleged that their employer had violated Section 1(3) of the Equal Pay Act mandating the equal treatment of men and women in the same employment.  The Edinburgh Employment Tribunal found for the claim