Employment law cases

Alabaster v Barclays Bank plc and Secretary of State for Social Security (No.2) [2005] IRLR 576 CA

Reports relating to this case:

  • Equal pay: case law update

    Date:
    3 February 2006

    We review recent significant equal pay cases and their implications. Developments of note include the application of the "single source" test to comparators within an employment unit, and a reference to the ECJ on whether use of length of service as a pay system criterion requires specific objective justification.

  • Maternity leave and equal pay: Male comparator not required in maternity pay claim

    Date:
    24 June 2005

    In Alabaster v Barclays Bank plc, the Court of Appeal holds that the answer to the problem of how to enable an employee effectively to enforce her right to claim arrears of maternity pay (owed to her as a result of a failure to take into account a pay rise awarded before her maternity leave started, but after the reference period for calculating her maternity pay had ended) lay in removing the requirement in s.1(1) of the Equal Pay Act 1970 for her to point to a male comparator.