Breakthrough for 'Admin & Clerical' claims

Stefan Cross Solicitors has just won a major test case in Scotland - which will give a huge boost to equal pay claims from Admin & Clerical workers across the UK.

Edinburgh was the battleground on this occasion - the hearing ran for 10 days over June and August 2008, but the written judgment completely slated the council and its main witness, John Allan, an Employee Relations Manager.

The council’s case was that hundreds of equal pay claims from women (admin & clerical) employees should not be allowed to proceed because they are employed on different conditions of service to their male colleagues.

The Employment Tribunal’s decision gave the council’s argument short shrift, clears the way for existing cases to proceed and opens the door for many more claims from women workers in former APT&C or ‘white collar’ jobs – i.e. clerical workers, social care workers, classroom assistants catering managers and nursery nurses.

Key extracts from the tribunal’s written judgment are reproduced below, for easy reference – a copy of the full judgment is available on request:

Para 459: “Put simply, where the respondent (Edinburgh City Council) has issued a document to an employee which makes specific reference to the Red book, I do not comprehend how it can be said that the terms of the Red Book are not contractual;. In the context of communications between parties about a contract which they are entering or proposing to enter into, each is taken to mean what they say”.

Para 460: “Mr Allan gave evidence to the effect that the issuing of offer letters etc. Containing specific references to the Red Book terms and conditions was a ‘mistake. In my opinion, even if that is true, it cannot alter the legal and contractual effect of doing so, particularly where there has been no attempt by the respondent to rectify that ‘mistake. ”.

Para 539: “In relation to Mr. Allan, I have a degree of sympathy with him because he appeared ultimately to be attempting to defend the indefensible. I do not think that there was an issue of credibility as such but he was forced to adopt a number of relatively absurd positions by reference to the content of documentation put to him.....Ultimately, I felt that I could attach little weight to his evidence”.

Mark Irvine, spokesperson for Action 4 Equality said: “’Defending the indefensible’ sums up the council’s behaviour perfectly – they should be ashamed of the way they fought this case and how they’ve dealt with equal pay. The tribunal’s criticism of the council’s evidence is quite extraordinary, but absolutely entirely justified in the circumstances. The waste of public money is enormous.

The council really has no choice now but to face up to reality and accept that Admin & Clerical staff have just as valid equal pay claims as their manual worker colleagues. Equal pay is not an abstract issue about 'blue' or 'white collar' jobs - it's about levels of skill and responsibility wherever you work - and why there are such big pay differences between male and female jobs."