Equal pay: job evaluation

Case 9: The facts

Ms Hovell was employed as a social services administrator. She lodged an equal pay claim in January 2007, comparing her pay with three male comparators who had been placed on the same band as her under an Agenda for Change Job Evaluation Scheme (JES).

The tribunal needed to decide whether she was employed on work of equal value in the period prior to the implementation of the JES on 1 October 2004. Both sides agreed there had been no material change to the jobs held by Hovell and her comparators in the six years before her claim was lodged. Hovell felt that the JES banding was therefore conclusive evidence that her job was of equal value in the period before it was implemented. The tribunal disagreed and ordered a report from an independent expert to decide whether the jobs were of equal value at that time. Hovell appealed.

The ruling

The EAT rejected the appeal. In Bainbridge & others v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (No.2) [2007] IRLR 494, the EAT had said that the fact that jobs are rated as equivalent under a JES is evidence which helps prove they were of equal value at an earlier stage, but it does not automatically follow. Similarly in this case, the JES banding may be of evidential value but it is not conclusive.