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In the next three months a labour tribunal will hear the case of Jessica (formerly Josh) Bussert who claims that her employer, Hitachi Data Systems, discriminated against her because she was a transsexual. She is claiming damages of £500,000, the largest claim in the country's history for such a case.

The European Court of Justice ruled ten years ago that it is unlawful to discriminate against transsexuals in the work place. The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulation of 1999 clearly states that people in the process of changing sexes are also covered under this ruling. There is no ceiling put on the amount that can be awarded in such cases.

According to the case, the American branch of the same company employed Bussert in January 2001. She lived in the US state of Indiana with her wife of 18 years, two of her children from a former marriage and two girls the couple adopted 12 years ago from Haiti. While there, she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition in which the brain is operating as a gender not in line with the body's gender. After a transsexual that Bussert knew was murdered and his body burnt, the family felt that moving to the UK would be better as they felt that there was less discrimination here. The family moved to West London and Bussert began working at the London branch of Hitachi Data Systems.

In the UK, she was employed as a Principal Consultant for European Services and earned a salary of £88,000.On a business trip with her supervisor, Steve Larkin, to Hamberg, Bussert mentioned that she might have a sex change. The comment was said in a light-hearted manner. According to the Work Place Law web site, Larkin responded by saying, "Don't do that to me, Josh. I had to work in an office with someone who did that once and it was weird".

After this, Bussert took sick leave to have an operation, one of a series for her gender reassignment. When she returned from leave, she was surprised to find that she'd been moved to a different supervisor, someone who had been recently hired on the same level as Bussert. Though her job title had not changed, she was only given tasks that were normally done by secretaries and any complaints that she made to management were dismissed. She then filed her lawsuit and two days after, Larkin gave her a negative job performance review that led to "stress causing clinical depression with anxiety and panic disorder". After three months she returned to work, but again had to go on sick leave because, according to her, the company was making her work situation "difficult". At this time Hitachi stopped paying her. Her total sick leave entitlement was six months.

Bussert told the Sunday Times, "I'm not a slacker. I'm a hard worker and my change of sex does not affect my performance". She has filed a parallel lawsuit against Hitachi Data System USA claiming £2 million in damages. Bussert and her wife are still together and happily married.