Sex discrimination during interviews

Sex discrimination during interviews

In one of the first ‘hypothetical male comparator’ cases, a woman from a pool of all female candidates has won her claim for sex discrimination arising from the questions she was asked at her job interview.

The case

Claimant Ms MacDonald was one of five women interviewed for the post of Cultural and General Information Assistant at the Japanese Consulate. No men were interviewed. During the interview Ms MacDonald was asked if she had any children and when she confirmed this, she was asked a number of questions:

• What she would do if one of her sons was sick?
• What she would do about her children if she was expected to work at night?
• Whether she could afford the childcare and nursery costs charged locally?
• If any family members lived nearby who could help her with the children?

Overall, half the interview was about her childcare arrangements and, although Ms MacDonald was subsequently offered the role, she decided to turn it down and claimed sex discrimination in a Scottish Tribunal.

The outcome

The Tribunal ruled in Ms MacDonald’s favour, noting that she had been asked a large number of questions about her ability to cope with the job as a mother of young children. For this she was awarded £2,000 together with her costs.

It is interesting to note that in this case, despite the fact that all the candidates were women, the claim was for sex discrimination. In cases of sex discrimination, a woman can use a hypothetical male comparator and in this case the tribunal found that even though no men were interviewed for the job, one might have been and the tribunal concluded that “he” would not have been treated in the same way as the woman.