Webster v. Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Constabulary [2000] ET/200687/99

Webster v. Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Constabulary is a case taken to the Employment Tribunal in London in 2000 on the ground of Sex Discrimination. In this case it was found that a male officer had been discriminated against because of colour blindness.

The police officer in question had been removed from operational police duties after, 10 years of service with Hertfordshire Constabularly, because he suffered from a particular type of colour blindness (a moderate deuteranomalous loss of colour vision), which meant that he could not distinguish between different shades of green.

He had declared the dficiency when he applied to the Force. 7% of men and 0.5% of women have hereditary defective colour vision. He alleged the need to have perfect colour vision was not justifiable.

The Employment Tribunal balanced the needs of the Force against the effects on Mr Webster and concluded that he had been indirectly dicriminated against on the grounds of his sex.

The Employment Tribunal questioned whether a person accused of murder would be acquitted because a witness could not distinguish a particular shade of green.

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Links

• XpertHR
• Learning the Lessons from Employment Tribunals (some Police Myths)
• Police Employment Discrimination