The Labour Court left in place a finding that three male psychiatric nurses were not discriminated against in pay by the Eastern Health Board. The Court signed its determination on 17 August 2000, rejecting Timothy Crowe, Michael McCarthy And John Reynolds’s appeal over a 90% acting-up allowance paid to female comparators.
The Court considered two comparators after the appellants withdrew their claim concerning a third. It found that the two remaining women met the agreed criteria for the allowance, while the three men did not: two had not applied for the confined competition and the third lacked the required acting-up experience.
The Court found that grounds other than sex justified the difference in pay. The Equality Officer had reached the same no-discrimination finding in a recommendation issued on 30 June 1998.