Long Service and Employment
Oct 11, 2006
Author: Trish Morrill

This is the issue many employers are wrestling with since 1st October when the age discrimination legislation came into force. In October, the European Court of Justice, in a landmark case, held that this is lawful unless an employee can bring evidence to raise serious doubts that the longer service person does not perform their duties better because of the extra experience acquired.

Trish Morrill says:

“Bernadette Cadman was a health inspector. She sued the Health and Safety Executive in 2001 when she found her pay was up to £9,000 pounds a year less than male colleagues in the same post. She said her employer unjustifiably paid male staff at the same grade more only because they had worked more years, and that length of service often depended on domestic circumstances such as pregnancy and maternal leave. The employment tribunal will now have to decide in her case whether the less service she served did in fact make her less able to perform her duties.

In some jobs, after a few years people do not necessarily become better at the work and therefore paying them more salary than those with fewer years of servi e could be unlawful and in some cases sex discriminatory. Some women (and some men) take time off for several stints of maternity leave and if this means she (or he) has fewer years of service, and this matters to competence in that job, then the parent could be paid less than a similar parent who chose to work during the early years of their children’s childhood.

Contact is if you need any advice on issues of long service, sex discrimination and your pay structures for particular levels of employees.

Call Trish Morrill on 01494 521301 for further information.