Discrimination jurisdiction

Case 5: The facts

Surinder Saggar served as an army officer from 1982 to 2002. He worked in the UK for all but the last four years, when he was posted in Cyprus.

Saggar claimed that he had been discriminated against on grounds of his race while working in Cyprus. The Ministry of Defence argued that an employment tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear his claim, because he had been working wholly or mainly outside Great Britain when the alleged discrimination took place and the UK law did not apply.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the Ministry of Defence's position.

The ruling

The Court of Appeal held that, when deciding whether someone was working wholly or mainly outside Great Britain, a tribunal should look at the whole employment relationship and not just the period during which the discrimination occurred. The case was sent back to the tribunal for reconsideration.

Saggar v Ministry of Defence [2005] EWCA Civ 413