Men can fall victim to sex discrimination

SEX discrimination can happen to both men and women but statistically more women complain of sex discrimination than men.

- BETHAN DARWIN

SEX discrimination can happen to both men and women but statistically more women complain of sex discrimination than men.

Employment tribunal statistics do not record the gender of those bringing claims of sex discrimination and I can find no reliable data that records what percentage of the total sex discrimination claims issued each year are brought by men, so I’ll have to rely on my own experience here.

I regularly advise on matters, whether acting for employer or employee, where issues of sex discrimination have been raised by women. Sex discrimination also includes sexual harassment and is also the protected characteristic that women who have returned to work after having a baby will need to rely upon if they consider they are being treated less favourably. Matters where men have complained of sex discrimination have crossed my desk maybe three times in 35 years.

So last week my interest was piqued when I read in Lexis Nexis’ rather gossipy legal news service Law 360 that a former legal director at Cisco has accused the technology company of sex discrimination, asking a tribunal to award him almost £3.9m over allegations that he was selected for redundancy because he was a man.