Part-time work and equal pay 




Part-time workers are entitled to equal pay under the EA 10. They also benefit from the Part Time Workers (Prevention of Unfavourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 (see Chapter 2: Part-time workers). 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. 




Refusing part-time workers access to a company pension scheme infringes the law on equal pay (Bilka Kaufhaus v Weber von Hartz [1986] IRLR 317), but claimants must show that they would have joined the pension scheme given the choice. 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, their claim failed because they could not show that they would have joined the scheme, given the chance.