R (Equal Opportunities Commission) v Secretary of State for Employment [1995] 1 AC 1 is a UK constitutional law case, concerning judicial review.
The EOC wished to argue that rules over redundancy pay and unfair dismissal were discriminatory and breached EC law.
The House of Lords held that the hourly threshold contravened the EU law on equal treatment of men and women.
It held that the Secretary of State had not discharged the onus of showing that the threshold did not infringe art 157, applying Bilka-Kaufhaus and Rinner-Kuhn.
Lord Keith said that if the EOC did now win it would ‘agitate in judicial review proceedings questions related to sex discrimination which are of public importance and affect a large section of the population.’ He accepted that the promotion of job opportunities was an appropriate goal for employment legislation (or lack of it?)