Can i raise an Equal pay claim now?

[elaeocarpus]

I will try to keep this as brief as possible

I started in a role 14 yrs ago
Male comparator was in post doing exact role for 5?7? Years already, had been with company 30 years but wasn't always doing this role

When i started we had pay steps, so start at bottom / or negotiated step and each year move up a pay step until reached the top ( maybe 6 steps), once at the top then you just got the standard pay increase each year ( maybe 2% pre 2010)

So i can see my comparator would have been above me In pay for a period.

Our pay progression system ceased in 2010, i was at top by then anyway.

I moved up into a new role in june and now line manage the male comparator. Recently the HR system has enabled me to see their pay, and that it was ca 10% higher than mine when we had equal roles.

Is it reasonable to expect at some point our pay should have been made equal? Or is it justifiable that they had higher pay due to length of service.

If the difference was entirely down to the length of service, it may be justifiable or it may be age discrimination. It depends on whether the employer has a lawful justification for this. However, you may be out of time to bring a claim since it is more than 6 months since you were promoted. If you want to pursue this, you need to see a lawyer who specialises in employment law urgently.

Thank you

I had seen the 6 month limit, unfortunately i only became aware of the pay discrepancy in December which is annoying

If there is a reasonable defence then I wouldn't pursue. Our company is in the midst of a big EEDI push so it rankles slightly

It is impossible to know on the information posted whether your employer has a defence. I still think you should see a lawyer. Check your home insurance. If it includes legal cover, you should be able to get free advice.

I don't disgree that it might be worth taking advice, but I would offer a slightly alternative consideration. If you were to push this, regardless of the fact that you now (presumably) have a legitimate reason to know his pay previously, how would your using this information against your employers look and how do you think it will play out in terms of your future with the employer? There may or may not be a justification for paying someone else more than you, but whether there is or not, how will your employers view you using information in this way? I ask because you have obviously been with the employer for a very long time, and for whatever reason have seen no reason to move on. You've obviously recently been promoted, so one assumes you have applied for that and so have been relatively happy to remain with the employer. Using their own HR system against them, whether you legitimately had the right to look up what he was being paid or not, may not be positively construed. If you are fine with that possibility then that's fine. But don't think that it may all be rosey...

My understanding is the there is no legal requirement to have to pay people the exact same. Perhaps he did a better job negotiating pay rises during his time there.
I think you'd be foolish to pursue this now given your new position .

I’m a little out of touch now but my recollection is that to go to an ET the time limit is 6 months but you maybe able to take an Equal Pay case to the Civil Court where the time limit is 6 years.

The key issues are whether or not the two roles are of equal value and whether or not there is an objective justification. The first is often determined by using a job evaluation methodology to analyse the job descriptions. The second is whether a business case exists setting out the factual reasons why a job might attract a premium payment e.g. market rate, holding a qualification, difficulty attracting/retaining candidates.

This ACAS guide www.acas.org.uk/equal-pay/advice-for-employees/asking-your-employer-questions-about-equal-pay-and-terms-and-conditions sets out how you can approach obtaining information and making a claim. There used to be an equal pay questionnaire you could send which meant you didn’t have to state how you found out about the other employees salary.

I agree with pp that you need legal advice if you decide to proceed.

From your post I get the feeling you maybe public sector, if this is the case it is highly likely that there will be an objective justification to explain the difference in pay.

I would urge you to think carefully before you decide to make a claim, you have been promoted and received a commensurate increase in pay, it is going to take a lot of your time to gather the evidence you need, any claim like this is stressful for all parties and it will take a long time to reach a conclusion. Do you want all that whilst settling into a new job?

There isn't, but paying people more because they have worked for the company longer may be illegal discrimination.

Thank you for the responses and opinions

I have spoken to our data officer about whether i could use the information from the hr system or not to raise a query.

This person isn't better at negotiating pay rises ( we don't get to do that); Our roles were equal/ interchangeable.

i have legal cover on my home insurance so i will call them and see what they say. It sounds like it will be too late in any case, aside from whether the length of service is a justified reason for the difference.

@elaeocarpus you didn’t answer my question about whether or not you are public sector. It is relevant as the way pay awards are decided and how the pay budget is controlled could be a factor in why there is a pay difference and that can be objectively justified.

For example in 2010 the Government introduced a 2 year pay freeze then in 2013 as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne announce the end of automatic pay progression by 2015-16. These factors, along with 1% cap on pay awards, hugely impacted the ability to progress employees up the pay scale. If within the parameters set your employer can show you and your comparator were treated equitably or you received a higher (nominally) pay award the differential in salary can be objectively explained.

@Princessglittery
Not public service directly, but arms length and where civil service rules applied on pay/pension

@elaeocarpus some ALBs do have more flexibility. I would start by getting copies of the pay policy, pay scales, details of past pay awards and the annual pay guidance.

In my experience you will need to understand the starting point I.e. what were the pay scales, pay policy etc when you joined. Then for each year show the impact of the pay award/increase you and your comparator received.

seem he had a longer period on top rate so the flat % would of been more

tbh if my manager went routing through my personal file and pay records out of curiosity and for there personal gain
I would straight down the grievance route
just because you have access to some details doesn’t mean you have the right to look at them

@rwalker there maybe legitimate reasons for a manager to become aware of their staff’s pay e.g. staff budget. The op is human and once you legitimately see someone’s salary you can’t forget it.

Obviously if the op was unprofessional and went looking out of curiosity that is a breach of GDPR, confidentiality and could be a disciplinary matter as there will be rules on accessing sensitive personal information.

Having legitimately seen the information, the op is naturally curious why there is still a pay differential. I agree with you that it is likely to be due to being on different salaries when the op started and the impact of pay awards. Typically public sector has pay bands/steps etc. and as I have stated it is likely pay awards have been equitable but not closed the pay differential.

There is another explanation possible too. If a pay scheme or previous grading has been higher - the OP days he's been there a lot longer - he may have had protections in place. Say, if his job in 1999 was paid £50k. Subsequent gradings for the role came in at £40k. But they can't take away his previous grading. We've had this where rules have been evaluated down over the years (especially during austerity years), or staff have amalgamated from other services. Protected staff will still get percentage increases, which keeps them in higher pay even over many years. I've lost count of how many changes to pay and conditions have taken place over the years, but a common factor is that it often only impacts on new recruits.

The only reason she looked was for herself

shockingly unprofessional I wouldn’t want anyone like that managing me
as a manager your in a post of trust and OP has clearly abused that