Union welcomes landmark employment law ruling

Posted 11/02/2010

A trade union has hailed a recent Court of Appeal ruling over an unequal pay dispute as a potential landmark employment law ruling.

Unite has welcomed the court’s decision to back a group of female carers who are taking legal action against Sheffield City Council over its failure to offer them similar bonuses to male street cleaners and gardeners.

An employment tribunal had previously ruled that this was justified due to the difficulty of measuring and rewarding productivity among care workers, citing an earlier legal precedent, but the Court of Appeal has now overturned this.

Bronwyn McKenna, Unison’s director of organising and membership, said the decision to negate this precedent will allow other female council workers to make similar legal claims.

She added: “It is the year 2010, more than 40 years after the Equal Pay Act, and it is time that the council faced up to its responsibilities to pay its women workers fairly.”

This comes after the Trades Union Congress earlier this month called for the government to do more in order to ensure that women are given equal salaries.