Case: The EAT has held that it is not direct sex discrimination for an employer to offer enhanced maternity pay and fail to pay
enhanced shared parental pay in line with this.
Not exact matches
Of these 42 % (24 % of the whole sample) intended to
enhance pay for
shared parental leave above the statutory level.
There are yet to be any cases to assess whether it is discriminatory for employers to
enhance maternity
pay but not
shared parental pay although we would urge all employers to act with caution if offering different rates of
pay to males and females when taking any type of family friendly leave.
Addleshaw Goddard's commitment is further outlined by its investment in an annual female development programme, truly flexible
shared parental leave package which mirrors the
enhanced pay offered to maternity leavers and its support of a wide range of agile working arrangements, from term - time working to home working to reduced hours, with around 70 % of workers reporting working flexibly, regularly or from time to time.
Action point: Employers who
pay more than 26 weeks
enhanced maternity
pay, but a lower amount of
shared parental pay, may want to risk - assess this policy.
A recent case has provided employers with helpful guidance as to whether they need to match
enhanced maternity
pay with equivalent
shared parental pay.
Employers who
pay enhanced maternity
pay, but do not
pay equivalent
shared parental pay, should therefore be reassured by this decision.
The EAT have held that an employer's failure to
pay enhanced shared parental leave (SPL) to a male employee when it did
pay enhanced maternity leave to female employees was not direct sex discrimination (our blog on the Tribunal's earlier decision can be found here).
While men on
shared parental leave can not directly compare themselves with women on maternity leave,
enhancing maternity
pay but not
shared parental pay may give rise to an indirect discrimination claim.
This case is the first challenge to an employer's decision about
enhanced pay during a period of
shared parental leave.
The issue of whether it is discriminatory to
enhance maternity
pay but not
shared parental pay remains unresolved by the higher courts, but this decision ought to prompt employers to review their policies about
enhanced pay to avoid falling into the trap that Network Rail did, and also to ensure that there is parity between the provisions of any policies relating to
shared parental leave in general.
The policy in place at the relevant time was that mothers were
paid at an
enhanced rate for up to 26 weeks of
shared parental leave, (and at the statutory rate for 13 weeks thereafter) but there was no equivalent benefit for fathers, who were only entitled to statutory
shared parental pay for the duration of their period of leave.
Failure to match
shared parental pay with
enhanced maternity
pay is not direct discrimination
In the case of Capita Customer Management Limited v Ali the Employment Appeal Tribunal («EAT») reversed the decision of the Employment Tribunal («ET») and ruled that an employer did not directly discriminate against men on grounds of sex by refusing a new father
enhanced pay whilst on
shared parental leave whilst female employees received
enhanced maternity
pay for the first 14 weeks of maternity leave.
Pay freeze not validly implemented; notice provisions matter; enhanced pay for shared parental lea
Pay freeze not validly implemented; notice provisions matter;
enhanced pay for shared parental lea
pay for
shared parental leave?
Many employers who
enhance maternity
pay have chosen not to mirror this for
shared parental leave, pending clarity as to whether this could be direct or indirect sex discrimination.