Burden of proof

Case 6: The facts

EB was made redundant because of a fall in the amount of time she spent on billable work. Arguing that her employer had failed to allocate her to projects because of her gender reassignment, she brought a sex discrimination claim. But a tribunal rejected the claim, on the grounds that the employer had provided adequate reasons for not placing her on a project and she had not provided any evidence to the contrary.

The ruling

The Court of Appeal held that it was not for the claimant to show why she should have been given particular projects to work on: in direct discrimination cases, once a claimant has established a potential case of discrimination (in this case, the failure to allocate work), it is for the employer to prove that there is a non-discriminatory reason for this.

EB v BA [2006] EWCA Civ 132 [2006] IRLR 471