Threatening letters

Case 18: The facts

Equal pay claims were brought by 510 female catering staff against their employer, St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council. Most settled the claim prior to a hearing, but 39 - including Mrs Derbyshire - did not.

The council wrote to all catering staff, saying that the cost of the case would increase the price of school meals and result in reduced staff numbers. It also wrote separately to the 39 staff, urging them to settle. Derbyshire and her colleagues, whose equal pay claims were successful, claimed victimisation under the Sex Discrimination Act.

The ruling

The EAT held that the letters constituted less favourable treatment; although there was no direct threat to the 39 staff, they would inevitably experience "reproach and vilification" from their colleagues.

The EAT confirmed that the primary purpose of the victimisation provisions in discrimination law was to ensure that people are not penalised or prejudiced for taking (or intending to take) steps to exercise their statutory rights. The test for victimisation was whether a reasonable worker could take the view that the treatment was to her detriment.

St Helens MBC v Derbyshire and others [2004] IRLR 851