| A ruling on the comparability of IVF treatment and pregnancy. |
| Monday, 22 February 2010 | |
|
An appeal was brought to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considering (inter alia) the issue of whether or not IVF treatment should be treated as equivalent to pregnancy for the purposes of the Sex Discrimination Act. The importance of this question is partly because to claim sex discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act a pregnant employee does not have to identify a comparator (the Courts having in the past held that a sick employee for example is no comparator and that pregnancy is a unique condition) this effectively gives pregnant women a great deal of protection in law. The appeal failed for other reasons not relevant here however the EAT has expressed their view in the Judgment on the comparability of IVF treatment and pregnancy |