Grievances and Equal Pay

[Thanks to Alfred Weiss of Zenith Chambers for providing this case summary]

The EAT (Underhill P) has handed down its decision in Brett v Hampshire County Council, which is authority for the proposition that in equal pay, each claim by reference to a different comparator is a different claim. Where the Claimant in her grievance under the modified procedure had identified four jobs but had in her eventual claim identified two of those jobs but also two which were different, she was entitled to pursue her claim in so far as it relied on comparison with the jobs identified in her grievance.

Male Claimants advancing "piggyback" claims did not have to make that fact explicit in order to satisfy the requirement of regulation 9(1)(a) of the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004. The grievance was sufficiently "set out" if it was "necessarily implicit". A grievance, once withdrawn could only be reinstated in writing.

This case dealt with a number of points arising out of the application of section 32 Employment Act 2002 in the context of equal pay claims.