Part-time workers

Q: Our company’s policy says sick pay is only paid after two days’ sickness absence. We have a part-time worker who works two 10-hour shifts a week, and full-time workers who work eight hours a day over five days. The part-time worker has to be away from work for 20 hours before he gets sick pay. Is this discrimination?

A: There could be an argument — under the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, which state that a part-time worker cannot be less favourably treated than a comparable full-time worker — that part-timers’ qualifying days for company sick pay should be pro rata.

As the part-time worker has to work proportionately longer than a full-time worker before becoming entitled to sick pay, this could be “less favourable treatment” and therefore unlawful.

To succeed in a claim for a part-time worker, you must be able to compare his/her treatment with that of someone doing the same or broadly similar work on a full-time basis, and must show that the reason for the less favourable treatment is that the worker is part-time. If both conditions are satisfied, the difference in treatment could amount to discrimination. An employer has a defence if it can show that the difference was justified on objective grounds.