Matthews v Kent and Medway Fire Authority

Matthews v Kent and Medway Fire Authority
Matthews v Kent & Medway Towns Fire Authority
Court House of Lords
Citation(s) [2006] UKHL 8, [2006] IRLR 367
Case history
Prior action(s) [2005] ICR 84
Keywords
Discrimination

Matthews v Kent & Medway Towns Fire Authority [2006] UKHL 8 is a UK labour law case concerning discrimination of part time workers, and justifications.

Contents

Facts

Part and full time fire fighters were being paid differently. Full time firefighters responded to emergencies and were engaged in educational, preventive and administrative tasks, while part time firefighters did not do the administrative work.

The Employment Tribunal held that the full time firefighters fell under regulation 2(3)(a) and the part time firefighters under regulation 2(3)(d), nor did they do broadly similar work under regulation 4(a)(ii). The EAT upheld the Tribunal. The Court of Appeal[1] held that they had had the same kind of contract under regulation 2(3), because the categories were meant to be mutually exclusive. However, the appeal was still dismissed because the firefighters did not do the same or broadly similar work under regulation 4(a).

Judgment

The House of Lords held by a majority that the two requirements for comparability are that there is the same type of contract being used (not the same terms) or a broadly similar kind of work being done. The Directive clause 3(2) indicated the broad nature of the inquiry. Four held there was the same contract type, and three held there was the same kind of work. The majority held the firefighters were all in category of regulation 2(3)(a). It did not matter under regulation 2(4)(a)(ii) that the full time fire fighters did a few extra tasks, because their jobs were still broadly similar. The case was remitted to the tribunal to be finalised.

Lady Hale remarked,[2] ‘in answering [the question of broad similarity] particular weight should be given to the extent to which their work is in fact the same and to the importance of that work to the enterprise as a whole. Otherwise one runs the risk of giving too much weight to differences which are the almost inevitable result of one worker working full-time’

Lord Carswell and Lord Mance dissented.

See also

  • UK labour law
  • UK employment equality law

Notes

  1. ^ [2005] ICR 84
  2. ^ [2006] UKHL 8, [44]

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of United Kingdom House of Lords cases — This article lists by year the cases heard before the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords. The House of Lords is the only body capable of hearing appeals from the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales (the Court of Appeal, the… …   Wikipedia

  • United Kingdom — a kingdom in NW Europe, consisting of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: formerly comprising Great Britain and Ireland 1801 1922. 58,610,182; 94,242 sq. mi. (244,100 sq. km). Cap.: London. Abbr.: U.K. Official name, United Kingdom of Great… …   Universalium

  • High Speed 1 — approaching the Medway Viaducts …   Wikipedia

  • Cuxton — Coordinates: 51°22′30″N 0°27′00″E / 51.375°N 0.450°E / 51.375; 0.450 …   Wikipedia

  • Chattenden — For the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, see RFA Chattenden. Coordinates: 51°25′23″N 0°30′58″E / 51.423°N 0.516°E / 51.423; 0.516 …   Wikipedia

  • Frindsbury — infobox UK place country = England latitude = 51.3999 longitude = 0.5064 population = official name = Frindsbury unitary england = Medway region = South East England lieutenancy england = Kent constituency westminster = Medway post town =… …   Wikipedia

  • York — City of York Koordinaten …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • James II of England — James II redirects here. For other uses, see James II (disambiguation). James II VII[1] King of England, Scotland a …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”