‘Dinner ladies’ case adds spice to equality debate

Twice in the section headed ‘facts’ your legal expert in Case of the Week (Personnel Today, 8 May) refers to the employees involved in St Helen’s Borough Council v Derbyshire and others as ‘dinner ladies’.

As this is a report on a sex discrimination case, should we be amused by the irony, or outraged at the insensitivity?

Baroness Hale, at paragraph 30 of the judgment – and referring to injustice in the labour market – says that women workers “have been segregated into ‘women’s work’, which is paid less than men’s simply because it is women’s work”.

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Your learned contributor seems to be helping to preserve this with respect to school catering work.

Tim Knights, MCIPD