Brownbill and others v St Helens & Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust [2011] EWCA Civ 903, [2011] All ER (D) 274 (Jul)
Court of Appeal, Civil Division. Maurice Kay VP, Hallett and Toulson LJJ. 28 July 2011
An employment tribunal erred in law in failing to compare terms in the contracts of employment of male and female employees relating to payment for working unsocial hours, which were said to be more favourable to the male employees.
John Bowers QC and Seamus Sweeney (instructed by Weightmans) for the employees. Karon Monaghan QC and Richard Stubbs (instructed by Thompsons) for the employer.
The claimants were female employees with higher earnings than their proffered male comparators. They brought claims before the employment tribunal under the Equal Pay Act 1970 (EA 1970) on the basis that terms in their contracts of employment relating to the working of unsocial hours within their normal working week were less favourable to them than terms of a similar kind in the contracts of their male comparators. A preliminary issue arose as to whether
