428.Where an employment tribunal has to decide if the work of a claimant and comparator are of equal value, this section gives it the power to require an independent expert, designated by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, to prepare a report on the matter.
429.Unless the tribunal withdraws its request for a report (in which case it can ask the expert to give it any documents or other information the expert has to help it make a decision) it must wait for the expert’s report before deciding whether the work is of equal value.
430.If there has been a job evaluation study in relation to the work involved and the study finds that the claimant’s work is not of equal value to the work of the comparator, the tribunal is required to come to the same decision unless it has a good reason to suspect that the study is discriminatory or unreliable.
431.This provision replaces similar provisions in previous legislation.
A woman claims that her job is of equal value to that of a male comparator. The employer produces a job evaluation study to the tribunal in which the woman’s job is rated below her comparator’s job. The employer asks the tribunal to dismiss the woman’s claim but the woman is able to show that the study is unreliable because it is out of date and does not take account of changes in the jobs resulting from new technology. The tribunal can disregard the study’s conclusion and can proceed to decide if the work of the claimant and the work of the comparator are of equal value.