East Dunbartonshire Council v Trade Union Backed Claimants and Another: EAT 24 Jun 2010

EAT EQUAL PAY ACT – Article 141/European law
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Amendment
Employment Tribunal granted Claimants’ applications to amend their equal pay claims to add new comparators to their existing lists. Two of the Claimants having left the Respondent’s employment more than six months prior to their claims being amended, time bar would have prevented them from raising fresh claims. On appeal, the Respondent’s case that the Employment Judge had no discretion in the light of the time bar position was rejected. However, she had erred in rejecting the Respondent’s argument that they were prejudiced by not having had the opportunity to seek to resolve the claims involving the new comparators at grievance stage and had approached matters on the basis that the Respondent’s point could be met by reducing any compensatory award on the grounds of the Claimants’ failure to comply with the statutory grievance procedure. Section 31 of the Employment Act 2002 would not have allowed for such a reduction in the circumstances of these cases. The claims were, accordingly, remitted to the same tribunal to consider the amendment applications of new.

Judges:

Lady Smith

Citations:

[2010] UKEAT 0005 – 10 – 2406

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Employment Act 2002 31

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Employment, Discrimination

Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.425003