Commentary on Sections Part 9: Enforcement Chapter 4: Equality of terms Effect
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.