Commercial: Employment Law update.

Equal Pay: In the case of  Birmingham City Council v Huda Abdulla and Ors [2011] EWCA Civ 1412, the Court of Appeal upheld the previous High Court decision allowing 174 Equal Pay Claims against Birmingham City Council to proceed.

The High Court previously rejected the council’s Application because if the claims had been presented in the Employment Tribunal they would have been out of time as they had not complied with the 6 month time limit. The Court of Appeal upheld that decision.

The Court does have discretion to strike out claims which could be more conveniently brought in an Employment Tribunal however, the Court found that it would be an extreme exercise of judicial discretion to strike out a claim which was still within the Civil Court time limit of  6 years.

The decision means that many people who thought they had lost their right to claim because they had not complied with the 6 month Employment Tribunal time limit can now bring their claim in the Civil Courts.

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