Part time work and equal pay

The equal pay provisions of the EA 10 apply equally to part-time workers, who also have the benefit of the Part Time Workers (Prevention of Unfavourable Treatment) Regulations 2002. A pay practice that treats part-time workers less favourably than comparable full-time workers is likely to be indirectly discriminatory against women, because more women than men work part-time. Unless the employer can objectively justify the pay differential or practice, it is likely to be unlawful.

The ECJ case of Bilka Kaufhaus v Weber von Hartz ([1986] IRLR 317), established that refusing part-time workers access to a company pension scheme infringed the law on equal pay. However, claimants must be able to show that they would have joined the pension scheme if they could. Otherwise they will not be able to demonstrate loss.

In Copple v Littlewoods PLC ([2012] IRLR 121), although female workers had been excluded from the scheme because of their part-time status, the evidence showed that none of them would have opted to join given the chance, so their claim failed.