The employer had altered existing employment contracts. The claimants having commenced discrimination claims then sought to add to the existing proceedings comparators from different job groups. The tribunal had been asked whether, given that this amounted to a new claim (applying Bainbridge), that new claim was out of time and if so whether its discretion should be used to allow it.
Held: The Trust’s appeal was dismissed. There had been a ‘stable employment relationship’ allowing the application of the Bainbridge and Slack principles. The nurses in the present case continued to do the same work for the Trust, without any break in either the work itself or the succession of contracts. Although the tribunal found that there was a ‘fundamental’ change, that judgment was based entirely on the differences in the terms of employment, most notably the introduction of the KSF requirement. There was no suggestion that the nature of their jobs as nurses changed materially, nor that there was any other practical break in the employment relationships.
Judges:
Carnwath, Smith, Rimer LJJ
Citations:
[2010] EWCA Civ 729, [2010] WLR (D) 169, [2010] IRLR 804
Links:
Statutes:
Equal Pay Act 1970 2 2ZA, The Equal Pay Act 1970 (Amendment) Regulations 2003
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Preston and Others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and Others; Fletcher and Others v Midland Bank plc ECJ 16-May-2000
ECJ Social policy – Men and women – Equal pay – Membership of an occupational pension scheme – Part-time workers – Exclusion – National procedural rules – Principle of effectiveness – Principle of equivalence. . .
Cited – Cumbria County Council v Dow and others EAT 24-May-2007
EAT Equal Pay – Material Factor Defence.
The Tribunal considered a whole series of GMF defences and rejected most of them. There were numerous appeals and cross appeals and the Council contended that the . .
Cited – Preston and Others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and Others, Fletcher and Others v Midland Bank Plc (No 2) HL 8-Feb-2001
Part-time workers claimed that they had been unlawfully excluded from occupational pension schemes because membership was dependent on an employee working a minimum number of hours per week and that that was discriminatory because a considerably . .
Cited – Preston and others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and others EAT 3-Nov-2003
EAT Judge McMullen QC adopted a limited view of the scope of the new principle of stable employment set out at the ECJ and HL. He thought it was intended ‘to rescue employees who do not have a permanent job’; and . .
Cited – Dr Thatcher v Middlesex University, Secretary of State for Education EAT 10-Jun-2005
EAT Equal Pay Act – Part-time worker’s pension. – The Employment Tribunal Chairman erred in concluding the claim was submitted out of time when a stable employment relationship had been established. The analysis . .
Cited – Secretary of State for Health v Rance EAT 4-May-2007
EAT Equal Pay Act – Part time pensions
Practice and Procedure – Appellate jurisdiction/Reasons/Burns-Barke
The EAT exercised its discretion to allow a point conceded at the Employment Tribunal to be . .
Applied – Slack and Others v Cumbria County Council and Another CA 3-Apr-2009
The court was asked when the six month’s limit for beginning equal pay proceedings began. The new section 2ZA set the qualifying date as ‘the date falling six months after the last day on which the woman was employed in the employment.’ The problem . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Discrimination
Updated: 20 August 2022; Ref: scu.420021