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Equal pay: No six-year comparator bar to bringing equal pay claim

This report relates to 1 case(s)

  • expand

    Kells v Pilkington plc [2002] IRLR 693 EAT (2 other reports)

    • Equal value update

      Date:
      1 May 2003

      Kate Godwin charts the recent developments on equal pay and reports on key equal value cases.

    • No time limit on equal pay comparison

      Date:
      1 December 2002

      In Kells v Pilkington plc (2 May 2002), the EAT rules that an equal pay applicant can compare her work to that of comparators employed either contemporaneously or in the past, and that there is no time restriction for this purpose on when the comparator was employed on equal work.

Key points

  • In Kells v Pilkington plc 2.5.2002 EAT/1435/00, the EAT holds that there is no rule of law precluding an equal pay claimant from relying on the circumstances of his or her chosen comparator more than six years before the claim is brought, although there may be considerable evidential problems in showing that any pay differential is related solely to gender in such cases. It therefore sets aside the decision of an employment tribunal to strike out such a claim on the ground of frivolity.