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Equal pay

New and updated

  • Date:
    10 January 2003
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: Transferred workers cannot compare their pay with retained workers

    Article 141 of the EC Treaty of Rome is not limited to situations where men and women work for the same employer, but it does not cover the situation where pay differences between equal pay claimants and their comparators cannot be attributed to a single source, so that there is no single body responsible for the inequality and which can restore equal treatment, the European Court of Justice holds in Lawrence and others v Regent Office Care Ltd and others.

  • Date:
    15 April 2002
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: Teacher can compare pay with that in another authority

    In South Ayrshire Council v Morton, the Inner House of the Court of Session holds that a teacher could compare her pay with an employee in another local authority for the purposes of an equal pay claim.

  • Date:
    15 September 2001
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: Objective justification for unequal pay

    In Brunnhofer v Bank der osterreichischen Postsparkasse AG1 the European Court of Justice rules that in comparing the pay of men and women for the purposes of an equal pay claim, the fact that the employees concerned are classified in the same job category under a collective agreement is not in itself sufficient to lead to a conclusion that they perform the same work or work of equal value.

  • Date:
    15 March 2001
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: No right to full pay during maternity leave

    The principle of equal pay under Community law does not require that women should continue to receive full pay during maternity leave, holds the European Court of Justice in Gillespie and others v Northern Health and Social Services Board and others.

  • Date:
    1 March 2001
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: Six-month time limit is compatible with Community law

    In Preston and others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and others (No.2) and Fletcher and others v Midland Bank plc (No.2) the House of Lords holds that the six-month limitation period laid down in s.2(4) of the Equal Pay Act 1970 does not breach the principle of equivalence.

  • Date:
    1 March 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: Pay disparity need not be justified in absence of sex discrimination

    An employer is not obliged to justify a variation in pay or conditions between a woman and men employed on like work, work rated as equivalent or work of equal value if the employer has proved the absence of direct or indirect sex discrimination, holds the House of Lords in Glasgow City Council and others v Marshall and others.

  • Date:
    15 January 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: Refusing to pay Christmas bonus to women on parental leave may not be discriminatory

    In Lewen v Denda, the European Court of Justice rules that, where a bonus that is paid voluntarily as an exceptional allowance at Christmas is awarded retroactively as pay for work done, an employer is precluded by Article 141 of the Treaty of Rome from excluding female workers on parental leave entirely from the benefit of the bonus, without taking account of the work done. But an employer may lawfully refuse to pay such a bonus to a woman on parental leave where that payment is subject only to her being in active employment.

  • Date:
    1 December 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay: Principle of equal pay applies to union training courses

    An employer contravened the principle of equal pay for equal work contained in Article 141 of the Treaty of Rome when it paid a part-time employee who attended a full-time union training course her normal part-time pay rather than payment for the hours actually spent attending the course, holds the EAT in Davies v Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council.

  • Type:
    Employment law cases

    Equal pay law means that part-time workers are entitled to full pay for full-time safety rep training

    In Davies v Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) uses EC equal pay law to rule that an employer has to pay a trade union health and safety representative for all five days of a training course, even though it employs her on a part-time basis.

  • Date:
    15 September 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    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.