employee gave written consent. If not, the deductions
are invalid and must be repaid to the employee. Deduc-
tions from the wages of workers in the retail trade, e.g.
petrol station cashiers, for stock and cash shortages are
limited to 10 per cent of the gross wages and deductions
may be made only within the period of 12 months from
the date when the employer knew or ought to have
known of the shortage. Outstanding amounts may be
recovered from a final pay packet when the employee
leaves even though the deduction exceeds 10 per cent.
These provisions are enforceable by the employee
against the employer in employment tribunals.
Low pay
Reference has already been made to the National Min-
imum Wage Act 1998 and to the functions of the Low
Pay Commission.
Equal pay
The Equal Pay Act 1970 (EPA 1970) (as amended) implies
a term called an equality clause into contracts of service.
This clause means that a man or a woman must be given
contractual terms not less favourable than those given to
an employee of the opposite sex, i.e. the comparator,
when they are each employed:
1 on like work,in the same employment (but not nec-
essarily in the same kind of job); or
2 on work rated as equivalent in the same employ-
ment, e.g. by a job evaluation scheme; or
3 on work which is in terms of demands made on
the worker,under such headings as effort, skill and
decision-making, of equal value to that of a worker in
the same employment.
As regards the relationship between the EPA 1970 and
the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) 1975, the EPA 1970
covers not only matters concerning wages and salaries,
but also other terms in the contract of service, such as
sick pay, holiday pay and unequal working hours. Other
forms of sex discrimination in employment, such as dis-
crimination in recruitment techniques, are covered by
the SDA 1975.
In addition, unlike the SDA 1975, a woman must find
an actual man with whom she can be compared. It is not
enough to ask a tribunal to imply that her pay and con-
ditions are worse than a man’s would have been.
Application of the Equal Pay Act
The Act applies to all forms of full- and part-time work.
There are no exemptions for small firms or in respect
of people who have only recently taken up the employ-
ment, though the Act does not apply, for example, to
those who do their work whollyoutside Great Britain.
The legislation does apply to workers merely posted
abroadfrom employment in Great Britain. There is no
service requirement.
The Act applies to discrimination against men and
women but in practice claims are normally made by
women. We shall from now on consider the law on the
basis of a claim by a woman.
Main provisions of the Equal Pay Act
These are as follows:1 If a woman is engaged in the same or broadly
similar work as a man and both work for the same or an
associated employer (see below), the woman is entitled
to the same rate of pay and other terms of employment
as the man.
The comparison can be made with a previous holder
of the same job. In Macarthysv Smith(1979) the EAT
decided that Mrs Smith, a stockroom manageress, was
entitled to pay which was equal to that of a previous
manager of the stockroom, a Mr McCullough. However,
the EAT did say that tribunals must be cautious in mak-
ing such comparisons unless the interval between the
two employments is reasonably short and there have not
been changes in economic circumstances.
In Hallam Diocese Trusteev Connaughton(1996) the
EAT decided that an employment tribunal could hear
a claim for equal pay under Art 119 of the Treaty of
Rome where the applicant relied for arrears of pay on
the salary of a man appointed after her resignation. A
claim under the EPA requires employment at the same
time but Art 119 is of direct application, as it was in the
Macarthys case.
The term ‘broadly similar work’ means that although
there may be some differences between the work of the
man and the woman, these are not of sufficient practical
importance to give rise to what the EPA calls a ‘material
difference’. Thus, in a case where women clean offices
and toilets and men also clean offices but also urinals,
the fact that the men clean urinals would be a difference
but not a ‘material difference’, so that the women would
be entitled to the same pay as the men. The following
case illustrates a material difference.Part 4Business resources