Employment—Equal pay claims—Jurisdiction

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Mummery, Davis LLJ and Dame Janet Smith, 29 Nov 2011

The expiration of the limitation period for presenting equal pay proceedings to the employment tribunal is a circumstance of considerable weight in deciding whether to strike out in-time equal pay claims in the ordinary courts under s 2(3) of the Equal Pay Act 1970 (EPA 1970).

Paul Epstein QC and Louise Chudleigh (instructed by Birmingham City Council Legal and Democratic Service) for the authority. Andrew Short QC and Naomi Ling (instructed by Leigh Day & Co) for the claimants.

The claimants were formerly in the employment of the appellant local authority and were mostly women. They brought an equal pay claim against the authority in the High Court alleging a breach of contract on the part of the authority as employer in not complying with its contractual obligations as modified by the equality clause implied into those contracts