The case concerned a private-hire driver charged a flat £148 weekly fee for access to a booking system, meaning he paid more per hour than drivers working longer hours.
Writing in NLJ this week, Robert Hargreaves, LLB course lead and lecturer in law at York St John University, says the ruling rejects McMenemy v Capita’s sole-cause test and widens the causation gateway under the Part-time Workers Regulations 2000. Apparently identical treatment may still be less favourable when the pro rata effect is considered.
Employers cannot now defeat a claim simply by identifying an additional reason for their policy; it may instead matter to objective justification or compensation. They should review fixed charges, threshold benefits and other arrangements whose burden varies with hours, and prepare evidence before a claim arrives.
