Sex discrimination: Victimisation complaint failed for lack of conscious motivation

An employer who summarily dismissed a manager for disobeying an instruction was not consciously motivated by her having previously complained of sexual harassment constituting unlawful sex discrimination, and in those circumstances, holds the EAT in Higgins v Home Counties Newspapers Holdings plc 17.12.98 EAT 1048/97, an employment tribunal was bound to dismiss the manager's victimisation complaint. The EAT also thinks that, in considering a victimisation complaint, the tribunal should go through a process of reasoning similar to that required for a direct discrimination complaint.