EAT EQUAL PAY – Material factor defence
Claimant and her male comparator started in the same job at about the same time but he was placed two points above her on the applicable incremental scale because of his substantially greater skill and experience – Tribunal accepted that that constituted a material factor other than the difference in sex which explained the pay differential in their first year but held that it did not do so in the following year when the Claimant had had sufficient experience of the job to ‘catch up’, so that she was entitled to be paid the same as her comparator in that year and thenceforward.
Held, allowing the appeal, that the comparator’s additional skills and experience on recruitment constituted a non-discriminatory explanation of the differential not only in the first year but in subsequent years, by reason of the operation of the incremental scale – Glasgow City Council v Marshall [2000] ICR 196 followed – Benveniste v University of Southampton [1989] ICR 617 distinguished.
Judges:
Underhill P J
Citations:
[2011] UKEAT 0279 – 11 – 2911
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 01 November 2022; Ref: scu.460383
