Letters
A Denning judgment
Sir: I wish to bring to your attention our very deep concern over the attitude of the judiciary to working women, the working class and trade unions. This concern can be exampled by the case of Mrs Ivy Turton and Macgregor Wallcoverings Limited.
Mrs Turton, a member of ours, was made redundant in November 1976. Her emp loyer's parent company, Berger Jensen Nicholson, had a policy which provided for additional compensation for those made redundant who were nearing state retire ment age, which was written in a way that denied those benefits to women because of their earlier retiral age. In the negotiations we contested this on the grounds that we believed it was discriminatory and it was eventually considered by an Industrial Tribunal who unanimously supported our view.
The company lodged an appeal with the Employment Appeals Tribunal, which was denied by a majority decision, the two representatives of industry supporting Mrs Turton, with the Chairman, Mr Justice Phil lips, supporting the company, to whom he gave leave to appeal. At this and subsequent stages we were working in concert with the Equal Opportunities Commission.
When the appeal was heard by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday 4 April, he found in favour of the company, denied us the right to appeal against his decision and awarded costs against us. In my view this represents further evidence that our legal system in general, and the Master of the Rolls in particular, are clearly out of touch with the realities of our society, if not positively anti-ordinary peo ple and their organisations. It can also sup port the contention that the judiciary are involved in a campaign to undermine the will of Parliament through decisions that define the spirit of recent social and industrial legislation in a negative and restrictive way.
Whilst one has to recognise that the general election campaign is being fought on issues such as prices, inflation and the role of trade unions, I would suggest that the role of the law, its composition, relevance and accountability represents an area of consideration that must not be overlooked.
A. W. Tom/ins
General Secretary, The National Union of Wallcoverings, Decorative and Allied Trades, 223 Bury New Road, Whitefield, Manchester
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