Equal pay

Case 9: The facts

A group of female domestic workers in different hospitals brought equal pay claims, comparing their work with that of male porters in one of the hospitals.

All had originally worked for the same hospital trust and had the same terms and conditions, which included bonus payments. Having lost their bonuses after a period of compulsory competitive tendering, the domestic workers claimed that they were entitled to the same bonus payments as the porters.

The ruling

The Court of Appeal held that the hospital trust was not a single source setting common terms and conditions of employment. This meant that the domestic workers could not compare themselves with porters at a different hospital within the same trust.

The court went on to find that the non-payment of bonuses to the domestic workers had not been discriminatory, since there was nothing to show that decisions that related to the market had been influenced by the workers’ sex.

Armstrong and others v Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Hospital Trust [2005] EWCA Civ 1608 [2006] IRLR 124