Any Employment Lawyers/HR people about? Equal pay claim in a mixed sex team

[Lightsabre]

Our team has a quarter of the workers on a higher grade (historically they took on an extra responsibility which finished a year ago). They also work shifts from 7-8pm but they receive an extra 20% allowance for this. However, we are all doing exactly the same work except they are still paid at a higher grade.
I called our union legal helpline re; can we make an equal pay claim to be on the same grade (obviously without the shift pay). The person I spoke to seemed unsure as equal pay claims relate to, for example, where male workers get paid more than females for the same job. They never got back to me.

Any advice on a way forward please. It is a local authority.

Contact CAB or a solicitor?

An equal pay claim is about male/female, yes. Are you saying that those paid higher are all women?

Thanks for the swift replies. The three people on a higher grade are, incidentally, women, the rest of us are a mixture of women and men.
We did contact the legal helpline with our union but they seemed unsure. Maybe we need to pay for a consultation with an employment solicitor. Does anyone know a good London based one?

In that case it's not an equal pay claim. To do that you need a male comparator.

I assume you've already tried to address this internally, if you've got to the point you're looking at making a legal claim. Have you got documented responses from your line manager/HR regarding the issue?

Thanks flowery, I thought as much. We have a grievance out which covers several things including pay parity. We've been advised to go for a red line amendment but there's no guarantee we'll be upgraded and it has dragged on for over a year now, even with union support. I just thought there might have been a clearer legal route regarding the pay issue itself as I can imagine this might have happened elsewhere/be some case law somewhere.

I'm afraid not - there's no legal obligation to pay two women the same for the same job. In respect of pay, from a legal point of view, as long as men and women are paid equitably, and there is no unlawful discrimination (ie on the basis of a protected characteristic), there's no legal route to argue to be paid the same as someone else.

It does happen elsewhere and quite frequently. It’s perfectly lawful as long as the reason isn’t sex (for equal pay legislative purposes).

People can get more depending factors such as having more experience, whether the company needed an additional incentive as they were struggling to recruit, candidates own individual negotiation, TUPE transfers, just as a few examples.

I’ve always negotiated for a higher salary.

It's a bit worrying your union doesn't know what an equal pay claim is, tbh!

@flowery

Unfortunately trade unions IME are almost always next to useless.

They think they know what they’re doing but more often than not they have no idea.

I’ve only once come across a decent union rep in 12 years of practice!

My experience with union reps is very limited. Individual reps I have come across have always lived up (or rather down) to my stereotype, but as it's been so infrequent I do try and hold out hope each time that they won't!

Thank you again. So Joanna10 could the male members of staff take out an equal pay claim (they are on the lower grade) as the three people on a higher grade are women? We are all have exactly the same job description and do the same tasks at both grades.

Sorry, @Joanna710.

Also how could we go about making a claim for 'equal value work' please?

@Joanna710, that is so helpful, thank you. I will get together with my male colleagues and start the ball rolling with regard to the questions to HR and Management. Thank you for the offer of assistance too - we'll see how far we get! I'll update the thread in due course.