Objective Justification Defence Defeats Equal Pay Claim

The WRC recently examined an equal pay claim where the Complainant alleged that she was engaged in ‘like work’ following a redeployment and that her new male colleagues were paid significantly more than her.

While the Adjudicator accepted that the Complainant was engaged in like work with her male colleagues, this alone was insufficient to establish unlawful discrimination. Once like work was established, the key issue became whether the Respondent could demonstrate that the pay differential arose from objective factors wholly unrelated to gender.

The Respondent succeeded because it was able to show that the pay disparity stemmed from legitimate historical and contractual reasons. Importantly, the Adjudicator accepted that the comparators occupied protected grades and that the Complainant herself also benefited from a preservation of terms arrangement following redeployment. These factors along with the strong collective bargaining backdrop against which the dispute arose constituted objective justification for the differential in pay and successfully defended any inference of gender discrimination.

This decision is notable in light of the forthcoming implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The Directive is likely to have a spotlight effect on gender-based pay discrimination and lead to an increase in equal pay claims as Employees gain greater access to pay information and enhanced rights to challenge disparities.

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