Lawyer Monthly - August 2021 Edition

he main features of equal pay law in the UK were established by 1984 (and left substantially unchanged by the Equality Act of 2010). A woman and a man have the same employer, or associated employers. One of them, the claimant – usually the woman, but not always – is paid less than the other (the comparator) or has terms of employment which are inferior in some other way. The claimant submits an employment tribunal claim. The first question for the tribunal involves a comparison of the two jobs – not the job holders – to determine whether or not the claimant’s job matches up to the comparator’s job in one of three ways. Has it been given an at least equivalent rating under a job evaluation scheme (JES)? Are the two jobs similar enough to be ‘like work’? Or is the claimant’s job of at least equal value to the comparator’s job? If the claimant’s job satisfies one of these tests, there are further questions for the tribunal, provided that the employer has raised a ‘material factor’ defence. Has the employer given a credible explanation for the difference in pay or other terms? Has the employer also shown that the difference in gender formed no t Identifying and Combating Pay Inequality in Large Organisations Though there have been no fundamental statutory changes to equal pay rights in the UK for almost four decades, gender-based pay discrepancies are coming under ever greater at home and abroad, Below, Lawyer Monthly hears from Michael Malone on how pay inequality is addressed in larger organisations and how employers can avoid discriminating through a better understanding of their pay systems. EXPERT INSIGHT 55 AUG 2021 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM part of the reason? If the answer to both questions is yes, the employer can still lose, if the tribunal decide that the relevant pay practice involves indirect sex discrimination. In the early days, a common practice which was rarely upheld was to treat part- time workers less favourably than full-time workers, for example by excluding them from occupational pension schemes. If the claimant succeeds in the claim, her (or his) pay and other contract terms are raised to the level of the comparator’s and back pay is awarded. Why did it take until 1984 for these main features to be established? It was 1970 when the Equal Pay Acts were passed (there was one for England, Wales and Scotland and a separate but very similar one for Northern Ireland) and December 1975 when they came into force. And why were the words ‘equal value’ highlighted in the opening paragraph? The answer is that in 1970 the UK government had considered and rejected the concept of equal value (or comparable worth as it is known in the USA). However, in 1973 the UK joined the European Economic Community (which much later became the European Union). Equal pay for equal work was a key and overriding principle of community law and in 1975 a Directive added the words ‘or work of equal value’. The Equal Pay Acts were eventually (from January 1984) amended to comply with this Directive. Detailed procedural rules were brought in at the same time and have subsequently been amended more than once. The purpose of the equal value exercise is to identify and If the claimant succeeds in the claim, her (or his) pay and other contract terms are raised to the level of the comparator’s and back pay is awarded.