Equal Pay Claims: Guidance on How to Compare Employees

In Brownbill and others v St Helens and Knowsley Hospital NHS Trust, the Employment Appeal Tribunal confirmed that the correct approach in equal pay claims is to compare each individual term of the contract separately.  It is not sufficient to compare overall remuneration packages.

A number of female NHS workers claimed that their employment contracts contained unsocial hours payments which were less favourable than those in male workers' contracts.  Although this was true, the female employees in fact received a higher rate of pay overall than male employees (after taking into account their basic pay and other terms relating to remuneration). 

The EAT held that it was necessary to consider each term of the contract separately.  In practice, this means that both sexes can benefit i.e. both men and women could end up having their terms enhanced, depending on which terms are less favourable.