In the case Saggar v. Ministry of Defence (2005), it was decided that an overseas-based employee of a British company who was a UK resident when hired or at any point during the employee's employment can file a discrimination claim in the UK. The claim can be made even if the worker never worked in Britain again after moving abroad.
Lieutenant Colonel Surinder Nath Saggar spent 16 years at a Ministry of Defense base in Britain. In 1998, he was permanently stationed in Cyprus, and he was still there when he filed a claim for discrimination based on his race.
The Employment Tribunal decided that Lieutenant Saggar worked outside of Britain and could not file a race discrimination claim in Britain because he did all of his work outside of Britain. He went to the Employment Appeals Tribunal to try to change this decision ("EAT").
The EAT turned down the case and said:
For Lieutenant Saggar's claim to be valid, the EAT would have to look at all of his jobs since 1982, which would be "absurd."
The EAT had to follow the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of Carver v. Saudi Arabian Airlines (1999), which said that in order to decide if a tribunal has the power to hear a claim, it has to look at whether the claimant was wholly or mostly working in Great Britain at the time of the alleged discrimination.
So, Lieutenant Saggar only worked in Cyprus at the time of the alleged discrimination.
The case went to the Court of Appeal, which ruled: -
The whole period of employment is used to figure out if a claimant worked wholly or mostly outside of Great Britain;
The words in s. 8(1) of the Race Relations Act of 1976 supported this method; and
This decision was the same for all employees, even though people in the military are not employees because they don't have a contract of service.
In line with the Court of Appeal's decision, the case was sent to a different court to decide the question of jurisdiction.
Comment: This is a very important decision for workers. This means that employees who are sent abroad have the right to bring employment claims in the UK in many cases. In real life, it would be smart for employers to follow English employment law standards as well as the rules of the country where their employees work.
For more information, please email us at [email protected].
(c) RT COOPERS, 2005. This Briefing Note is not a full or complete explanation of the law as it applies to the topics discussed, nor is it legal advice. Its only purpose is to bring attention to broad issues. In any situation, you should always talk to a lawyer who is an expert in that area.
