Mr K Marsland v Sky In-Home Services Ltd — 2020

The claimant, Mr K Marsland, complained that Sky In Home Services Limited directly discriminated against him on the ground of sex by excluding him from a trainee programme for home service installation engineers that was restricted to women. The tribunal found that he was rejected because he was male. It also found that a female applicant with similar engineering qualifications and experience would not have been rejected automatically, and that the rejection email referred only to sex, not location, even though the claimant would in any event have failed the location requirement.

The tribunal held that the programme did amount to less favourable treatment, but concluded that the respondent could rely on s.158 Equality Act 2010. It found the respondent had identified women as under-represented in engineering and that the programme was aimed at encouraging women to overcome that disadvantage and participate in engineering. The tribunal accepted that this was a legitimate aim and that the steps taken were proportionate.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's argument that s.159 applied. It found the programme was not recruitment to a job or promotion, but a fixed-term training programme with classroom learning and, mainly, shadowing or buddying, during which trainees did not undertake specific duties. The expectation that trainees might later apply for engineering roles was separate from the programme itself, and the payment of a salary did not change its character. The claim of direct sex discrimination was therefore dismissed.