EAT EQUAL PAY ACT
JURISDICTIONAL POINTS – 2002 Act and pre-action requirements
The question in this appeal and cross-appeal was whether women bringing equal pay claims, in multiple public sector litigation, were to be prevented from pursuing their claims because of an alleged failure to comply with Step 1 of the statutory grievance procedure (SGP). The Employment Judge held at a PHR that one category of Claimants (Type A) was so prevented. Each of them had sent to her employers a grievance document which was held not to comply with the SGP because, although it was headed, in part, ‘Statutory Grievance’ and contained statements of complaint sufficient to comply with a Step 1 grievance, some questions or requests for information from the employer were also included in the same document. Regulation 14 was held to invalidate the entire document. The judge distinguished Type B Claimants, who had submitted exactly the same document, save for its heading, and whose claims were permitted to continue.
The Claimants’ appeal, in respect of the Type A Claimants, was allowed. The Respondents’ cross-appeal, in respect of the Type B Claimants, was dismissed.
The EAT held that Holc-Gale did not decide that regulation 14 applied to shut out the Type A or Type B Claimants in the particular circumstances of this case. The Employment Judge below was wrong to distinguish the documents on the basis of their headings. The matter should be addressed as a matter of substance, not form. The grievance documents submitted, which preceded the submission of pro forma Equal Pay Act questionnaires, and which had initially been treated by the Respondents as grievances complying with the SGP, were held to be dual purpose documents, so that questions outlawed by regulation 14 were excluded, and the remainder of the grievance, accepted as otherwise SGP compliant, was upheld as a valid grievance.
Cox J
[2010] UKEAT 0121 – 10 – 1009
Bailii
Employment Act 2002, Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolutions) Regulations 2004
England and Wales
Updated: 19 July 2021; Ref: scu.423247