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Equal pay: Genuine material factor must be justified by objective criteria

This report relates to 1 case(s)

  • expand

    Sharp v Caledonia Group Services Ltd [2006] IRLR 4 EAT (3 other reports)

    • Equal pay: case law update

      Date:
      2 March 2007

      This article looks at some of the significant judgments in the area of equal pay over the past year and their implications.

    • 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.

    • Case round-up

      Date:
      1 February 2006

      Bess Sturman and Richard Port of Addleshaw Goddard outline the latest legal rulings and explain what you need to know to avoid tribunals.

Key points

In Sharp v Caledonia Group Services Ltd 01.11.05 UKEAT/0041/05/ZT, the EAT holds:

  • The tribunal erred in finding that the difference between the claimant's pay and that of her comparator was due to a genuine material factor that was not the difference of sex.
  • The tribunal had followed the domestic approach, which simply requires that the employer can account for any difference in pay by reference to a factor that is material but is not the employee's sex, unless the factor itself may indirectly discriminate against women, in which case it must be objectively justified.