Sirdar v The Army Board (1999) C-273/97 is a UK labour law case concerning genuine occupational requirements for a job.
Ms Sirdar was refused a position in the marines, and made redundant from position as chef.
There was a ban on combat for women.
The ECJ held Member States ‘depending on the circumstances, national authorities have a certain degree of discretion when adopting measures which they consider to be necessary in order to guarantee public security in a Member State’.
Because marines were the ‘point of the arrow head’ the competent authorities were justified in having it be exclusively male.