Assumptions that an individual accused of sexual harassment must be guilty can be costly, as this council found out after a tribunal awarded the claimant £169,000 for sex discrimination and constructive dismissal.
The Supreme Court has held that the fact that the work of the claimants' chosen comparators has to be carried on in a different place of work out of necessity is no barrier to bringing an equal pay claim.
This tribunal decision provides a stark reminder to employers of the information on agency workers that they have been required to produce during redundancy and TUPE consultations since amendments to legislation made on 1 October 2011.
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.
In this decision, the employment tribunal was critical of a local authority that failed to keep an employee at risk of redundancy in employment for six more months during a transitional period. The decision had been taken to avoid a pension payout and constituted direct age discrimination and unfair dismissal.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the employment tribunal had not considered properly the evidence as to whether or not a significant group of Sikhs were disadvantaged by a council's policy that all staff who used of the communal staff kitchen had to join the rota to clean the fridge.
The Court of Appeal has held that the summary dismissal of Sharon Shoesmith, during the fallout from the death of "Baby P", was unlawful. In finding that she was entitled to a decision on her judicial review application, the Court held that her alternative employment tribunal remedy was not "equally convenient and effective".
In Hartlepool Borough Council v Llewellyn and other appeals [2009] IRLR 796 EAT, the EAT confirmed that male employees may institute contingent claims relying on female comparators who have instituted equal pay claims citing other more highly paid male colleagues. The male employees may be awarded arrears of pay for the same period as their comparators.
In Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council v Bainbridge and Equality and Human Rights Commission and other appeals [2008] IRLR 776, the Court of Appeal held that a transitional pay protection scheme that, in effect, preserved the previous (unlawful) pay levels of men, while failing to offer equivalent higher pay to women engaged on work rated as equivalent, perpetuated historic indirect sex discrimination and was not objectively justified.