Casework

The legal team in Scotland work to meet our mandate to protect individuals from discrimination and to enforce equality and human rights laws. They give priority to supporting cases which advance the objectives in the Commission’s strategic and corporate plans – those that help to prevent equality and human rights abuses and proactively tackle continuing abuses, those that raise strategically significant human rights issues, or those which allow us to respond to new and emerging issues of importance. 

They do this through case work and enforcement.  

Our Casework has included:

• Reaching an out of court settlement in the case of Kulikauskas v Macduff Shellfish, which involved pregnancy discrimination by association.  The Commission supported Mr Kulikauskas' claim that he had been discriminated against on the ground of his association with his partner who was pregnant when he was dismissed from his post in a fish processing factory for assisting her with heavy lifting.

• Reaching a four figure settlement with a High Street store on behalf of a visually impaired female shopper in Edinburgh.  The Commission supported her claim of disability discrimination, after the store detained her on suspicion of shoplifting when she used a device to help her see.

• Acting on behalf of the mother of a disabled child who believed that her daughter was being discriminated against by her school. A piece of play equipment was constructed for the use of all pupils but was situated in an inaccessible location.  After extensive involvement, the local authority admitted that they had not met their duties to make reasonable adjustments nor had they considered their public sector equality duties.  A new piece of play equipment was built in an accessible location.

• Considering a complaint that a national voluntary sector organisation excluded transsexual members because of their gender reassignment status. This organisation has now changed its practices.