Posted: December 21st, 2015

Advise Tina, Susan, Rachel and Rita on the basis whereby EU law on sex discrimination (Art 157 TFEU) can be argued to the above events and critically assess whether each could be successful in actions against the company for sex discrimination

Tina and Martin are both employed in the personnel department of Financial Services Ltd as personnel assistants. They both started working for the company at the same time but after five years Martin is paid more than Tina even though they work for the same number of hours. Also Martin receives more days holiday per year than Tina. Tina is arguing that she should receive the same pay and holiday as Martin.

Susan is employed in the secretarial department. She has discovered that her pay (and that of other secretarial staff) is about half of that received by staff in the marketing department, all of whose members are male. She has complained that this difference in pay amounts to sex discrimination and that she should be paid the same salary as the marketing staff.

Rachel works part-time in the personnel department. Most of the staff employed part-time in the department are female. Rachel has complained that part-time staff are excluded from the company’s sick pay and occupational pension schemes. She complained about this but was told that it was too costly and therefore not financially viable to include part time staff in the schemes. Rachel is arguing that this exclusion amounts to sex discrimination.

Rita and Tom both applied for a job in the sales department. They were both equally qualified and experienced but the job was offered to Tom. Rita was told “the sales job requires long hours and a lot of stamina, we do not think it is a job for a woman”.

Rita is arguing that she has been a victim of sex discrimination.

Advise Tina, Susan, Rachel and Rita on the basis whereby EU law on sex discrimination (Art 157 TFEU) can be argued to the above events and critically assess whether each could be successful in actions against the company for sex discrimination