A European case has held that a woman who was refused a job because of a legal bar on her doing it, was unfairly discriminated against on the ground of pregnancy, and not fairly discriminated against on grounds of legal bar. The case is a German one heard by the European Court of Justice. As it is on a point of European law, the case is binding in the UK.
A nurse worked for a heart surgery clinic on a fixed term contract. She applied for one of two permanent posts at which time she was eight weeks pregnant. Under German law a pregnant woman must not work in conditions where she could be exposed to harmful substances. This prevented her from working in the operating theatre, so she was assigned to other nursing duties.
Her application to the permanent post was rejected because she was legally barred from operating theatre work while pregnant. The employer argued that this was not discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy but because of a legal bar.
The court held that the post was a permanent one and therefore her pregnancy would only prevent her performing some of the duties at the beginning of the period. After that, there was no legal bar. The discrimination was therefore based on pregnancy and was therefore unfair.
Mahlburg v Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. ECJ Case C-207/98 [2000]
[2000]