Equal Pay
Supermarket staff bring legal action over equal pay 13 July 2015
Sainsbury’s faces legal action from four female shop-floor employees over claims that male employees are being paid more, despite doing comparable work.
Employee Benefits has reported that if successful, the members of staff may be entitled to six years’ back pay for the difference in earnings. Three of the employees are working in the Shrewsbury area and one in Fareham, Hampshire. The preliminary hearing will take place today (10 July) at the Birmingham employment tribunal. Lawyers at Leigh Day, who are taking the legal action on behalf of the workers, are arguing that store-based staff, mainly female workers, are of equal value to higher-paid jobs in male-dominated distribution centres. They also believe that thousands of other female shop floor staff could be eligible to make a pay claim. In 1989, Sainsbury’s faced a similar case from women working in its Lewisham store in south London. The first ruling found that even if “one or two minor terms of employment are not common to the two relevant classes of employees” that should not “disable a woman from saying that a given man in a different establishment was ‘in the same employment with her’”. Michael Newman, solicitor at Leigh Day, said: “This is an important case, given the amount of time equal pay legislation has been in force and the gender pay gap still exists. Sainsbury’s had a judgment against them in the 1980s and they appear not to have learned from that.”
Asda is also currently facing similar legal action over equal pay. A hearing took place in January.
CIPP comment By the end of March 2016 private and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees will be required to publish information on their gender pay gap so we may well see a reduction in cases such as these.
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 brings into force s.78 of the Equality Act 2010 which includes the power for this requirement.
The Act also states that the Secretary of State must consult such persons as they think appropriate on the details of such regulations prior to publication. The CIPP Policy Team will of course be involved in any consultation and report to members and the profession accordingly.
Equal pay settlement 2 November 2015
Fife Council has reached a multi-million pound equal pay settlement with 1,400 low paid, predominantly female workers.
Women working in the public sector have, historically, been paid less than their male counterparts for doing comparable jobs, and so in recent years equal pay measures have been brought in to remedy this.
The Scottish council managed to reach the settlement with its workers without the need for court action. Some of the claims went back as far as 2006.
Fife Council leader David Ross described his council’s agreement as in the best interests of all concerned. He said: “The fact that we have reached agreement without the need for legal proceedings has to be welcomed. There will no doubt be comparisons between Fife and other local authorities who are also dealing with equal pay claims. However it’s important to note that no two cases are the same and the fact that we haven’t had to go through a court process means Fife’s outcome cannot be compared to others.”
The final figures of the settlement have not been agreed yet, but cllr Ross points out that it will put an added strain on an already tight budget.
There have been a number of court cases and settlements in recent years, with substantial sums of money being paid out. In a landmark case, Birmingham City Council was hit by a bill of over £1bn in equal pay claims and was forced to sell the NEC Group in order to pay for it.
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 85 of 453
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