Equality Act 2010 : Gender Fluid Harassment

A gender-fluid/non-binary engineer who suffered abuse and harassment at Jaguar Land Rover has won a landmark discrimination case.

Rose Taylor, who worked at Jaguar changed the way she presented in 2017. She has won what is believed to be the first claim of its kind.

Until now, there had been uncertainty as to whether the Equality Act 2010 protections covered gender fluid/non-binary people.

The ruling was delivered by Employment Judge Hughes at a Birmingham Employment Tribunal.

Taylor had been an engineer with Jaguar Land Rover for more than 20 years. In 2017  she began wearing women’s clothes. She suffered insults and abusive jokes but did not receive support from the management and won her constructive dismissal claim.

Part of the argument was whether being gender fluid/non-binary was a “protected characteristic” under section 7 of the Equality Act 2010. The protected characteristics covered in the Act are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

The judge ruled that it was “clear … that gender is a spectrum” and that it was “beyond any doubt” Taylor was protected. The judge said gender reassignment “concerns a personal journey and moving a gender identity away from birth sex”.

Taylor, who prefers to use the female pronoun, is now working as an engineer with another firm.

Dave Williams, executive director of human resources at Jaguar Land Rover, told Forbes magazine: “On behalf of Jaguar Land Rover, I would like to apologise to Ms Taylor for the experiences she had during her employment with us. We continue to strive to improve in this area and we respect the outcome of the case.