Human rights—Freedom of association—Employment

European Court of Human Rights, Judge Garlicki (President), Judges Björgvinsson, Bratza, Hirvelä, Nicolaou, Kalaydjieva, De Gaetano, and F Araci (Deputy Section Registrar), 6 Nov 2012

It is incumbent on the UK to take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect employees, including those with less than one year’s service, from dismissal on grounds of political opinion or affiliation, either through the creation of a further exception to the one-year qualifying period under the Employment Rights Act 1996 or through a freestanding claim for unlawful discrimination on grounds of political opinion or affiliation.

The applicant worked as a bus driver for a private company, S Ltd, which supplied services to a local authority. He was employed in December 2003. The majority of his passengers were Asian in origin. There were no complaints about his work or his conduct at work and his supervisor, who was of Asian origin, nominated him for the award of “first-class employee”. Following revelations in a local newspaper