Equal Pay Act

The Equal Pay Act provides for the equal treatment of men and women in the work place. This means that men and women employed to do the same or similar work must not only receive the same pay but also be subject to the same terms of work such as holidays, sick pay and bonuses etc. The former is self - explanatory and includes work that is of a broadly similar nature with any differences being of no practical importance.

If an employee feels that he/she is being treated differently, he/she could make a claim with the Employment Tribunal.  For a claim to be successful an employee must prove to the Tribunal that a predecessor or successor of the opposite sex was treated more favorably or received a higher salary for carrying out the same work.  The claim must be made at the relevant time during employment or within 6 months of leaving the job. The claim can be backdated, for technical reasons, to 1976.

A defence is available to the employer if it can show that the differential in benefits is due to a material factor other than sex.

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