Equal pay: Severance payment based on final salary not discriminatory

Calculating severance payments by reference to length of service and final pay, so that a part-time employee who had previously worked full time did not have her full-time service reflected in her severance payment, was not discriminatory, holds the House of Lords in Barry v Midland Bank plc [1999] IRLR 581. Given that the purpose of the severance payments at issue was to cushion employees against unemployment and job loss, there was no relevant difference in the treatment afforded to full-time and part-time employees.