MAY GENDER DISCRIMINATION BE JUSTIFIED BY REFERENCE TO AN EMPLOYER’S CONCEPTION OF MORALITY?
35. South-West Trains’ reason for restricting employees’ entitlement to travel concessions for cohabitees to entitlement for persons of the opposite sex is, according to the evidence, its intention to benefit only persons who are married or living in a heterosexual relationship, but not persons living in a homosexual relationship, since cohabitation with a person of the same sex is not traditionally regarded as equivalent to a heterosexual relationship. As the national court implies in its sixth question, consideration must be given to the question of whether gender discrimination can be justified on the basis of conceptions of morality. 36. Lisa Grant submits that discrimination under Article 119 of the Treaty may only be justified if it is on essential economic or business grounds or is required by law. On the other hand, an employer cannot justify gender discrimination which is prohibited under the Treaty by reference to his private conception of morality, regardless of the fact tha
