This is a preview. To continue reading, register for free access now. Register now or Log in

Equal pay: Transferred workers cannot compare their pay with retained workers

Key points

  • Article 141 of the EC Treaty of Rome is not limited to situations where men and women work for the same employer, but it does not cover the situation where pay differences between equal pay claimants and their comparators cannot be attributed to a single source, so that there is no single body responsible for the inequality and which can restore equal treatment, the European Court of Justice holds in Lawrence and others v Regent Office Care Ltd and others [2002] IRLR 822.
  • The work and pay of those workers could not be compared on that basis, despite the other distinguishing features present in this case, namely that the work performed by the claimants for the transferee employer was identical to that which they had performed previously for the transferor, and that the work had been recognised as being of equal value to that performed by their male comparators retained in the transferor's employment.