EAT PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Striking-out/dismissal
Procedure – Rule 9 of the Tribunal Procedure Rules 2013 – Equal Pay Claims – Inclusion of Claims by Two or More Claimants On the Same Claim Form – Whether Irregular – Whether Discretion to Strike out – Whether Appropriate to Exercise Discretion to Strike Out Claims or Waive Any Irregularity
These five appeals concerned claims for equal pay. Three appeals concerned claims brought, largely, by female retail staff working in different jobs in supermarkets who claimed they were performing equal work with men working in distribution centres. Women doing different jobs included their claims in the same claim forms. Some men also included claims within the same claim form contending that, if the female Claimants were successful, then they did equal work with those successful female Claimants. Two of the appeals involved claims by women undertaking different jobs in local government who claimed that their work was equal work with men performing a variety of jobs. The Respondents contended that the Claimants’ claims were not based on the same set of facts within the meaning of Rule 9 of the Tribunal Procedure Rules 2013 and their claims should be struck out.
Rule 9 required a Tribunal to identify the complaints that the Claimants were making, then identify the set of facts upon which those complaints was based or founded and then to consider if the sets of facts were the same. In the context of a claim for equal pay, that is a claim contending breach of an equality clause included in a contract of employment by virtue of the Equality Act 2010, claims made by female Claimants doing different work, or jobs, were not based on the same set of facts as the claims involved a comparison of different jobs with the work of the male comparators. Similarly, claims made by male Claimants were not based on the same set of facts as they sought to compare their work with the work of female Claimants not with other male comparators. The Judgment sets out the appropriate approach to the discretion to strike out claims or waive the irregularity.
Citations:
[2017] UKEAT 0289 – 15 – 2006
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 02 April 2022; Ref: scu.601889
