Comparator must be of opposite sex

The principle of equal pay under Article 119 of the EC Treaty only applies where the comparator is in fact of the opposite sex, the EAT holds in Collins v Wilkin Chapman, overruling the decision of an industrial tribunal that a claim could be brought where the comparator is perceived to be of the opposite sex, but is the same sex biologically.

Mrs Collins, a secretary with Wilkin Chapman, a firm of solicitors, brought an equal pay claim comparing her work with that another secretary, whom she understood to be a man.