Birmingham City Council v Abdulla [2012] UKSC 47
On the 24th October
2012, the Supreme Court delivered a ground-breaking decision to allow equal pay
claims, brought outside the six-month limitation period for employment tribunals,
to be brought as breach of contract claims in the High Court. The decision effectively extended the claims’
limitation period from six months to six years.
In a majority decision, the Supreme
Court rejected Birmingham City Council’s request for the claims to be struck
out as being out of time under the provisions of section 2(3) of the Equal Pay
Act 1970 (now part of the Equality Act 2010) on the basis that the claims
“could be more conveniently disposed of separately by an employment tribunal”.
The majority (Lord Wilson, Lady Hale and Lord Reed) held
that the claims could not be
more conveniently disposed of by an employment tribunal as the expiration of
the limitation period prevented the tribunal from hearing the claims. The Court reasoned that as Parliament had
allowed equal pay claims to be brought within civil or tribunal proceedings, the
six year limitation period could apply.
The dissenting opinions of Lord
Sumption and Lord Carnwath averred that such a decision undermined the
importance of the limitation provisions of the 1970 Act.
The majority held that the
reasons for the delay in bringing proceedings were not relevant when
considering the requirement of convenience in section 2(3) of the 1970 Act. Moreover,
as section 2(3) allowed for the exercise of judicial discretion, the expiration
of the limitation period would in most circumstances carry great weight in deciding
whether to strike out a claim.
Furthermore, the Court warned
that there was a risk of similar claims being struck out on a finding that any
delay was strategic in order to be brought in the civil jurisdiction. Similarly, if a court found it had been
reasonable for a claim to have been brought within time limit of the employment
tribunal, this could be taken into account when considering awarding costs.
The claims will now proceed as a
single action to a substantive hearing in the Queen’s Bench Division of the
High Court.