http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=473372004
JAMES HALL
TRADE unions have lost their High Court battle for a ruling that new equality regulations are flawed because they fail to protect lesbian and gay workers from discrimination by "faith-based" employers.
A judge upheld the legality of the government’s 2003 Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations .
In an action co-ordinated by the TUC, the unions also unsuccessfully challenged provisions which they said unlawfully allowed employers to exclude same-sex couples from pension and benefits rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Richards said: "To treat the regulations as reducing the level of protection (from sex discrimination) seems to me to require a distorted view of their effect."