An office administrator, who worked for an insurance
brokers, has been paid £10,400 in an equal pay claim which was settled out of
court settlement.
Sarah Daly, who worked for Bennetts, claimed she was
paid almost £4,000 less than a male colleague doing work of equal value. Daly had worked at her former employer’s
since August 1996, initially as an insurance advisor and then as an office
administrator from 1999.
She compared her pay with a man who worked as an insurance
adviser, and found that her comparator was paid £13,000 a year, compared with
her salary of £9,100.
Daly requested a pay rise from her employers but was
refused and consequently resigned. An employment tribunal commissioned an
independent expert to prepare a report and the expert concluded that Ms Daly’s
work was of equal value to her comparator.
Bennett’s acknowledged that they had no grading
structure but claimed that salary reviews were based on performance as well as
issues such as attendance, application, drive, and dynamism.
Julie Mellor, chair of the EOC said, “Ms Daly’s case
raises important issues for all employers.
Without a fair and transparent pay structure it can be all too easy for
pay discrimination, conscious or not, to occur.”
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