The Supreme Court has held that civil courts should retain their discretion when deciding whether or not to strike out equal pay claims that are time-barred from being heard in the employment tribunal.
Chris McAvoy, Sarah Wade, David Rintoul, Helen Corbett and Kristin Aarvik are associate solicitors at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
The Court of Session has held that a group of administrative and clerical female workers making equal pay claims against a local authority were on "common terms and conditions" with a group of male manual workers who were based in different locations.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employer's compliance with the TUPE legislation to preserve existing contractual terms and conditions that results in a disparity in pay can amount to a genuine material factor that may provide a defence to an equal pay claim.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has considered the circumstances in which the terms and conditions of employees derive from the "same source" as their comparators for the purposes of the Equal Pay Act 1970.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that compromise agreements preventing employees from bringing equal pay claims against a council are valid, even though the employees had been advised by solicitors engaged by the council.