Sharp v Caledonia Group Services Ltd

EAT: Judge Ansell, Mrs R Chapman and Mrs L Tinsley: 1 November 2005

The claimant, a woman employed as a financial accountant, was paid at a lower rate than a male office manager, who had also acted as private secretary to the chairman of the employers until the chairman's death and whose salary had been initially set by the chairman to reflect the personal nature of that relationship and had been allowed by the employers to rise with inflation after his death. The claimant brought an equal pay claim against her employers, and her work was rated as of equivalent value to that of the comparator by an independent expert. The employers relied on the defence in section 1(3) of the Equal Pay Act 1970 that the variation was due to a material factor which was not the difference of sex. The employment tribunal dismissed the claim on the ground that the employers had established a genuine reason which caused the difference in pay and which was objective and unrelated to any discrimination based on sex.

The claimant on the ground that the difference in pay also had to be objectively justified.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held:
On a claim for equal pay, once like work or work rated as equivalent or work of equal value had been established, a prima facie case of discrimination existed, which equated to the primary facts found in a case of sex discrimination whereby the burden of proof shift onto the employer to show that there was no discrimination whatsoever. In all such cases there was a need for objective justification unrelated to any discrimination linked to the difference in sex. Accordingly, the tribunal had been wrong in approaching the genuine material defence factor from a subjective rather than an objective view, and the matter would be remitted for rehearing.

The appeal was allowed.

Appearances: Robin Allen QC and Damian McCarthy (Russell Jones & Walkers) for the claimant; Suzanne McKie (Fox Williams) for the employers.