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The claimant brought an equal pay claim under s 1(2)( c) of the Equal Pay Act 1970.
In this case there was just a small difference in points between those of the claimant and the male comparators of a job evaluation scheme (JES). The difference meant that the job evaluation scheme was not enough to establish that the jobs were of equal value. Because of this an independent expert's report was needed to establish whether the jobs were indeed of equal value. If a claimant relied on a job evaluation scheme under such circumstances she had to take into account the risk that she would fail to persuade a tribunal as to her assertion that her ob was of equal value. She asserted that although she had gained slightly fewer points her work had been rated as equivalent to that of the male comparators and was placed in the same pay band. When her case appeared before the employment tribunal the judge ordered that a report be prepared regarding the question of equal value. The claimant refused to comply with this with the result that the tribunal and later the employment appeal tribunal decided against her. Judge ELIAS of the court of appeal said that despite the claimant scoring fewer points than the comparator in a job evaluation scheme did not mean that a tribunal should conclude the job was not of equal value without further investigation using an independent expert's report. On the other hand the tribunal judge was right when saying that there only being a small difference in the allocated points was not by itself sufficient to establish that the jobs were indeed of equal value. It was not enough for a claimant to simply assert that her job had been rated in the job evaluation scheme within a mark or two of the comparator.This alone could not entitle a claimant to succeed in an equal value claim because small differences in awarded points could reflect genuine (possibly small) differences in the nature and quality of the jobs being performed. In the absence of an independent expert's report the very least expected would be that the claimant should explain the context of the difference of the particular job evaluation study. She should also explain why any difference should be ignored. A tribunal was under no obligation to accept her submission. The Court of Appeal accepted that the tribunal judge was wrong when stating that an independent expert was necessary before finding equality in this situation where the claimant’s job had received fewer points than that of the comparator.
The tribunal judge was however right to assert that even if the difference in points allocation was small, this did not necessarily mean that jobs were of equal value. The judge's mistake was not considered important enough to cast doubt on his decision and as previously in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (Judge Peter Clark) [2009] ICR 254, the claimant's appeal was dismissed.
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