A recent English Court of Appeal (CoA) decision
demonstrates the scrutiny applied to an employer's
justifications of pay differential between male and female
employees and the need for that justification to be ongoing and not
just be present at the time the differential was first
established.
The principal issue for the CoA in Walker v Co-operative
Group Limited and Richard Pennycook A2/2019/3016 was when and
how a 'material factor' may cease to be a defence. For the
purposes of the English Equality Act 2010, the 'material
factor' defence is a means by which an employer can justify pay
differentials between employees of different genders, and defeat a
claim for equal pay.
In Ireland, the equal pay provisions are contained in the
Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2015 ("Employment
Equality Acts") and prohibit an employer from paying an
employee lower pay than a person of the opposite sex in the same
employment for the same (or an associated) employer doing
