The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held in City of Edinburgh -v- Wilkinson & Others that office workers can bring equal pay claims using manual workers, who are entitled to bonuses for example, as comparators.
Despite the fact that the two groups of employees were engaged in different types of work and were based in different locations, the fact that both groups were employed by the council meant that they were held to be employed at the “same establishment” and that there were common terms and conditions between them under the Equal Pay Act 1970.
Employers should not assume that, simply because employees work in different geographical locations or perform seemingly disparate duties, they can escape the effects of the Equal Pay Act. It is likely that the employer will be viewed as the source of any inequality because it alone is responsible for the employees’ terms and conditions, whatever role they perform and wherever they perform it.
