P was subjected to homophobic bullying by his manager and sued the employer under s.1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (prohibiting harassment of one person by another) under vicarious liability. HL allowed his claim, holding that the act did create a tortious cause of action which applied in the employment context and there was no reason not to apply vicarious liability doctrine to the act. Controversial bit is that the act doesn’t mention employment nor VL.
Lord Nicholls: He rejected the floodgates argument, saying that the courts would take a practical approach in filtering out unmeritorious claims and would be alive to the need to distinguish between genuine harassment and the everyday office strains/unpleasantness/unattractive and unreasonable conduct.
