The big case in terms of media interest this week is this long-running equal pay case. The question before the Supreme Court was whether the court should exercise its discretion to strike out the equal pay claims of the ex-employees, which have been brought in the High Court, on the ground that they could more conveniently be disposed of in an employment tribunal, notwithstanding the fact that the claims there would be time-barred.
The Supreme Court has rejected the Council's appeal, which means that claims outside the 6-month time limit from employment termination for tribunal claims may proceed via the High Court. It will impact on ex-employees of public bodies and larger corporations in particular.
In reviewing the history of s 2 of the Act since its enactment, Lord Wilson observed that it was a striking feature of the six month limitation period set by the Act for claims in the employment tribunal that Parliament had never made it extendable. This suggested that Parliament recognised the availability of an alternative claim in court [20].
The ruling continued to state that in most cases it would be more convenient for an employment tribunal to dispose of a claim in respect of the operation of an equality clause, provided that it could still be brought there, rather than for the court to do so. The reasons for the failure of a claimant to bring the claim in the tribunal were not, however, relevant in any way to the notion of convenience [26], nor was a multi-factorial inquiry into the interests of justice required [27]. Such claims, barring an abuse of process, could never be more conveniently disposed of by the tribunal if they would there be dismissed for being out of time [29]. Parliament might wish to consider introducing a relaxation of the usual limitation period for such cases in order to allow their convenient disposal in the tribunal in future [31].
http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/decided-cases/docs/UKSC_2012_0008_Judgment.pdf
The BBC has a useful summary and background story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20054049
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