The Equal Pay Act 1970 (Amendment) Regulations 2004

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which amend the Equal Pay Act 1970, come into force on 1st October 2004.

Section 2A of the Act requires the employment tribunal to follow a particular procedure when determining proceedings where there is a question as to whether the claimant and the comparator are doing work of equal value. Section 2A partly implements Council Directive 75/117/EEC(1), which provides among other matters for claims to equal pay for work of equal value.

Regulation 2 alters the procedure for such claims. It allows the employment tribunal to choose to determine the question of equal value itself or to appoint an independent expert to prepare a report on that question. In a case where there has already been a job evaluation study which has given different values to the work of the claimant and the comparator, the employment tribunal must determine that the work is not of equal value unless it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the study discriminated on the grounds of sex, or there are other reasons why it is not suitable to be relied upon.

A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament, and can be obtained from the Women and Equality Unit, Department of Trade and Industry, 35 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BQ.

(1)

OJ No. L45, 19.2.75, p. 19.