Equal pay: Competitive tendering did not excuse pay-cut

In Ratcliffe and others v North Yorkshire County Council the House of Lords upholds a finding that women school catering assistants were entitled to receive the same rate of pay as their male comparators employed by the council on work rated as equivalent. The industrial tribunal had rejected the council's defence that it was forced to reduce the women's wages because of "market forces" - that is, the need to compete with private contractors in a competitive tendering process.