This is a request for information according to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please note there are three parts to my request. 1. How many equal pay claims have been made against your council in the time period between 31 December 2018 and 29 December 2023. 2. Please share the cost of claims closed/settled with compensation paid for successful claims in the last five years (31 December 2018 and 29 December 2023) in relation to equal pay claims. Please include the following information in the table: Compensation paid Defence costs paid Claimant Costs Paid Total Paid 3. What is your council's current estimated equal pay liability? I would like to receive the information electronically. If you feel that a substantive response to this request is not possible within a reasonable time frame, or the request is too broad or too vague, I would be grateful if you could contact me, either by email or telephone and provide assistance as to how I could refine the request.
To support you in your response, I include the following information about equal pay claims published on the Local Government Association website: Men and women carrying out equal work for the same employer are entitled to the same terms and conditions of employment. This right derives from both European legislation (Article 157 of the EU Treaty (previously Article 141 of the EC Treaty)) and from the domestic Equality Act 2010 (formerly contained in the Equal Pay Act 1970). Under section 4 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 Article 157 still retains effect in the UK following the UK’s departure from the European Union. However, section 4 is due to be repealed at the end of 2023, meaning Article 157 will no longer have effect under that section, but the Government has indicated that prior to then it will introduce domestic legislation to replicate the effect of Article 157. In general terms, the Equality Act (EA) gives women and men the right to equal pay for equal work unless there is a material reason for the inequality that is not related to sex. The EA achieves this by implying an “equality” clause into every contract of employment that enables a contract to be modified once a successful claim is made out. The provisions in the EA that were formerly contained in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 cover claims of less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex in non-contractual matters that arise in the workplace – e.g. discrimination in recruitment, training, promotion, dismissal and non-contractual benefits; and claims of sexual harassment and less favourable treatment on pregnancy and maternity grounds. In addition to the EA, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has produced a Statutory Code of Practice on Equal Pay. In its forward, the Code states that it is intended to be an “authoritative, comprehensive and technical guide to the Act’s provisions”. The Code is broken down into two parts, the first dealing with equal pay law and the second with good practice. 1. Establishing the right to equal pay In order to establish the right to equal pay under the EA, a woman must identify a “comparator” of the opposite sex, who works in the “same employment” and then establish that she and the comparator are: • employed on “like work”; or • employed in jobs that are of “equal value”; or • employed in jobs that have been “rated as equivalent”. Once a woman has established her claim to equal pay it then falls upon the employer to show that the reason for the inequality is genuinely due to a “material factor” that is not the difference in sex. If the employer cannot show that, it will be liable to the employee.