PRESS RELEASE: "Police cannot bar transsexual recruit, rules employment tribunal"

Leaders of Press for Change, the UK’s transsexual rights campaign, today welcomed an employment tribunal ruling that West Yorkshire Police had contravened the Sex Discrimination Act by refusing to offer employment in the office of constable to a transsexual woman.

The applicant, who was granted anonymity, was referred to only as ’A’.

Claire McNab, vice-president of Press For Change, said:

“This is a victory for common sense. West Yorkshire police accepted that ’A’ is a woman, and that they wished to employ her as such. Now that the narrow issues of legal status have been resolved by the tribunal, we look forward to ’A’ beginning the training programme which will allow her to fulfil her ambition of serving the community and upholding the law.”

’A’ said today:

“I believe that a police force should reflect the diversity of the community it serves. As a member of a minority group, I am sensitive to equality and prejudice. By nature, I have a tolerant attitude to gender, sexuality and ethnic culture — and I believe that my personal experiences would be a valuable resource in policing West Yorkshire’s diverse communities. The Home Secretary has recently stressed the importance of minority groups serving in the police, and I look forward to playing my part in achieving this objective.”

This decision follows the 1996 ruling of the European Court of Justice in the case of P v. S and Cornwall County Council, which ruled that discrimination against transsexual persons for the purposes of employment contravenes the EEC’s Equal Treatment Directive of 1972.

’A’ had applied to West Yorkshire Police to serve as a constable, fully disclosing her transsexual history. She advised the police to check for any possible legal difficulties arising from the fact that her birth certificate still describes her as male. UK law does not allow transsexual people to correct their birth certificates.

’A’ was repeatedly assured that this would not present any problem, and it was only after 14 months, at the final stage of the recruitment process, that the Police raised concerns about the implications of her legal status which led to their rejecting her application. In particular, they raised concerns about her ability to conduct searches in accordance with the law.

The employment tribunal found that such legal difficulties would arise only in limited and exceptional circumstances, concluding that:

“In our judgement, the risks to the respondent in permitting the applicant as a transsexual to carry out the full range of duties including the searching of women are so small that to give effect to them by denying the applicant access to the office of constable would be wholly disproportionate to the denial of the applicant’s fundamental right to equal treatment.”

This finding reverses the 1997 industrial tribunal ruling in the case of M v. West Midlands Police, in which the circumstances were broadly similar but the issues of legal liability were not examined in such detail.

Claire McNab, vice-president of Press For Change, added:

“West Yorkshire Police has an exemplary record in promoting equal opportunities, and we regret that legal confusion over the status of transsexual people has led to this ruling against them. Now that the tribunal has clarified the situation and allayed the fears of the police’s legal advisors, we hope that A will be welcomed into the force.”

Claire McNab continued:

“It’s time for the government to act to finally clarify the legal status of transsexual people. The current confusion does not just cause distress and difficulty to transsexual people themselves, but also causes expensive and unnecessary complications for employers. A change is long overdue, and the European Court of Human Rights ruled only last year that the issue should be kept under review.

By taking simple steps to regularise the legal status of transsexual people, the government would remove many legal difficulties faced by transsexual people in their daily lives. It would also rescue employers such as West Yorkshire Police from the absurd situation of fearing that they are legally barred from following a policy of equal opportunities.”

Background information:

The UK remains one of only four out of 39 countries in the Council of Europe which fails to provide full legal recognition in their new gender for transsexual people: the others are Albania, Andorra, and Ireland. This failure causes countless problems for transsexual people in their everyday lives.

Despite being issued with corrected passports and driving licenses reflecting their true gender, transsexual people remain legally in the gender assigned to them at birth. Apart from being unable to conduct a valid marriage, their tax and social security records retain the original gender, and insurance policies may be invalidated if they do not declare their legal status. If convicted of a crime, they risk being sent to a prison for the opposite sex, and any situation requiring the production of a birth certificate guarantees a breach of personal privacy.

The government insists that a birth certificate is not an identity document, yet civil service and public sector employers insist that it accompanies job applications.

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