The High Court has sent a group of civil servants’ equal-pay claim back to the Labour Court for a fresh hearing, setting out how it should select comparators and assess the case.
The claimants are clerical officers who say they are paid less than members of An Garda Síochána doing like work, and that the pay difference amounts to indirect gender discrimination. The Labour Court rejected the claim in 2007. The High Court appeal concerned questions of law, and the judge had referred questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled in February 2013.
In a judgment delivered on 13 January 2014, the High Court held that the Labour Court should draw comparators from the generality of people engaged in clerical work for or as members of the Gardaí. Those comparators must be used for all issues in the case. The judge said the claimants’ selected group of Garda members doing “pure clerical work” was too narrow to provide a significant and representative comparison.
The judgment did not determine that the claimants’ work is like work, or that the difference in pay is justified. It directed the Labour Court to decide first whether the work is like work by reference to the selected comparators. If it finds that it is, the Labour Court must then consider whether the pay difference is objectively justified.
The judge said the reasons Garda members were assigned to particular clerical posts do not, by themselves, justify a pay difference. Good industrial relations may be considered as one factor among others, but cannot alone justify the difference. The Labour Court must also consider the wider context of the work, including the nature of police duties and service in An Garda Síochána.
The High Court therefore remitted the matter to the Labour Court with directions for the rehearing. It did not make a final finding on the equal-pay claim.