Employment & Discrimination

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The Employment Team at Doughty Street Chambers covers all areas of employment and discrimination work.

However, this team is particularly well regarded for its specialisations in:

• Collective labour law
• All types of discrimination cases (whether in the workplace or outside)
• Proceedings, including judicial review applications, involving public sector workers and office-holders.

Our team increasingly undertakes disciplinary and regulatory work across a wide range of professional and work groups.

Members appear in all courts and tribunals up to and including the House of Lords and the European Courts.

Members practise in other areas and the team is uniquely placed to draw on its expertise in these. Team members are listed in Chambers & Partners Directory 2009 across a range of subjects including

• administrative & public law
• civil liberties
• defamation/privacy
• police law
• local government & housing
• as well as for employment law.

The team includes an Employment Judge as well as specialist trainers on discrimination issues for the Council of Europe, TUC, Bar Council and the Legal Services Commission.

Team members are currently working on a major new equality and discrimination text for the Oxford University Press. In 2008, OUP also published Henrietta Hill's Promoting Equality and Diversity: A Practitioner's Guide.

Team Members

Cases

Recent cases include:

• The Staff Side of the Police Negotiating Board v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] EWHC 1173 (Admin) Judicial review of the Home Secretary's refusal to implement the 2007 pay award of the Police Arbitration Tribunal.
• Oyarce v Cheshire County Council [2008] EWCA Civ 434 The reverse burden of proof in victimization claims
• Watt v Ahsan (HL(E)) [2008]ICR Jurisdiction of employment tribunals in race discrimination cases
• Couronne & Ors v Crawley BC [2007] EWCA Civ 1086 - Whether habitual residence test for Part VII eligibility and jobseekers allowance unlawfully discriminates on racial grounds between Irish claimants and British claimants from the Chagos Islands or is irrational - whether discrimination is within exception to Race Relations Act 1976 - whether discrimination is prohibited by European Community Race Directive
• O'Hanlon v Revenue & Customs Commissioners (CA) (2007) ICR 1359 The Disability Discrimination Act and sick pay
• Esfandiari & Ors v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions [2006] EWCA Civ 282 - whether condition for funeral payment that burial takes place in United Kingdom is discrimination contrary to ECHR 14
• North Wales Training and Enterprise Council Ltd v Astley and others (HL(E)) [2006] ICR 992 Application of the Acquired Rights Directive
• CELTEC Ltd. v Astley and others (ECJ) [2005] ICR 1409 Interpretation of the Acquired Rights Directive

What the Directories say

Chambers and Partners, 2010

Gavin Millar QC of Doughty Street Chambers is "a fantastic advocate" who "thinks quickly on his feet and responds well to testing questions." He is part of a set that includes Henrietta Hill, "a very switched-on advocate who is hugely cost-effective." To the delight of her clients, "she always has time to consider questions on a case and provide constructive, tactical advice."

Chambers & Partners, 2009

"Personable, straightforward and immensely hard-working," Gavin Millar QC leads the employment law team at Doughty Street Chambers. He focuses on discrimination and trade union law, often representing public sector workers, and regularly represents police officers through the Police Federation. He recently acted for the Labour Party in the House of Lords in Watt v Ahsan, a race discrimination case concerning employment tribunal jurisdiction in the context of candidate selections by political parties. Also at Doughty Street Chambers, Henrietta Hill is making a name for herself by achieving good results in multiparty and discrimination claims. She is "bright, proactive and great at getting to the heart of an issue." An "enthusiastic all-rounder who is excellent value for money," she specialises in discrimination law, claims against the police, inquests and related public law work. In 2007 she represented the claimant in Lynford v Chief Constable of Sussex, a sex discrimination claim brought by the only female officer in the Gatwick Airport firearms squad.