VICTORY FOR TRANS WOMAN

A transgender woman in Johannesburg has won her unfair dismissal case and her employer has been ordered to reinstate her in her job.

Christine Ehlers sued her Bohler Udderholm after the company fired her last year. She claimed that she had been unfairly dismissed and had been discriminated against by the steel company and her co-workers.

Ehlers stated in court that she had been described as “immoral” by a superior because she was a transgender woman.

The court ruled that Ehlers must be reinstated to the same position she held before being fired and awarded her back-pay for the period that she was dismissed as well as costs relating to the case.

While Judge Ellem Francis denied her claim for damages, he did order the company to take steps to ensure that it did not discriminate against its employees in future.

“[The company] must take steps to prevent the same unfair discrimination or any similar practice occurring in respect of other employees, and to report to this court within three months from the date of this order on the steps so taken,” said Francis in the ruling.