Labour Court rejects equal-pay appeal by five Dunnes Stores sales assistants

The Labour Court rejected an appeal by the Irish Distributive and Administrative Trade Union on behalf of five female sales assistants at Dunnes Stores (Northside) Limited against an Equality Officer recommendation that they were not entitled to equal pay with Frank Bollard. The determination was dated 8 September 1988. The Court found the appeal notice did not challenge a matter of fact or law in the Equality Officer’s recommendation, but sought to challenge its effects. The merits of the appeal were not decided. The Equality Officer had found that Bollard’s higher scale point followed his move to the sales assistant scale after taking on cash-register duties, and that the pay difference was permissible on grounds other than sex.