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 arose where there were a succession of contracts. It was argued that the European ‘stability of employment’ law suggested that claims could be entertained from prior periods.
Held: The employees’ appeals succeeded. The stable employment was made out where the employee: ‘did the same work for the Council over very many years without any break in the work they did or in the succession of contracts’ with only minor variations. The commission argued (newly on appeal) that the ECJ decision in Preston was undermined by the interpretation of the running of the time limit. ‘The proper approach to ensure compliance with the principle of equivalence is to construe the time limit provisions so that time only begins to run from the last occasion on which the equality clause operated. Thus, in cases like the instant cases, where there has been a termination of a contract of employment and continuation of employment under a new contract with the same employer for substantially the same work, the time limit is not triggered until the end of the last contract in the series.’

Mummery, Smith, Goldring LJJ
[2009] EWCA Civ 293, Times 14-Apr-2009, [2009] IRLR 463, [2009] 3 CMLR 8, [2009] ICR 1217, [2009] WLR (D) 127
Bailii
Equal Pay Act 1970 2(4) 2ZA
England and Wales
Citing:
CitedKumchyk v Derby County Council EAT 1978
The appellant sought to advance an argument that a certain term was implied into the contract of employment which, for its consideration, would have required consideration of a factual framework which had not been explored in evidence.
Held: . .
CitedLevez v T H Jennings (Harlow Pools) Ltd ECJ 1-Dec-1998
Regulations debarred a claim after a certain time even where the delay had been because of a deliberate concealment of information by an employer.
Held: Availability of other means of redress was not sufficient to displace this rule.
CitedJones v Governing Body of Burdett Coutts School CA 2-Apr-1998
The Employment Appeal Tribunal must give reasons for its decision, if it chooses to allow the amendment of appeal the papers in order to hear a point of law which had been conceded in the industrial tribunal. Citing Liverpool Corporation v Wilson, . .
CitedUnison v Leicestershire County Council CA 29-Jun-2006
The council had dismissed all workers within a group of employees, and invited them to re-apply for their jobs. The council now appealed a protective award made on the basis that there had been inadequate consultation with the union.
Held: The . .
CitedOakley Inc v Animal Ltd and others CA 20-Oct-2005
It was argued that the Secretary of State, when implementing the Directive in the 2001 Regulations, had exceeded his powers in preserving provisions of the Registered Designs Act. The judge had held the Seceretary had exceeded his powers. The . .
CitedPowerhouse Retail Ltd and others v Burroughs and others; Preston and others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and others (No 3) HL 8-Mar-2006
The appellants said they had been had been discriminated against on the grounds of their sex by the TUPE Regulations. Their discrimination cases had been dismissed as out of time.
Held: The employees’ appeals were dismissed: ‘A statute cannot . .
CitedJones v MBNA International Bank CA 30-Jun-2000
. .
CitedJones v Governing Body of Burdett Coutts School EAT 30-Sep-1998
EAT The Employment Appeal Tribunal refused to allow on appeal an employee’s more senior legal representative to re-open a point of law wrongly conceded at the Industrial Tribunal because of the need to achieve . .

Cited by:
CitedMartin v Essex County Council and Others EAT 19-May-2009
EAT EQUAL PAY ACT: Article 141/European law
Since Slack a claim for equal access based on a stable employment relationship cannot be struck out, as being out of time, when the series of short term contracts . .
AppliedNorth Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust v Fox and Others CA 30-Jun-2010
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 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Discrimination

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.329547