A settlement in an employment tribunal case, just resolved, may have implications for the pay and conditions of millions of part-time workers in education, building, catering and hospitality.
University lecturer Susan Birch - who was employed on a part-time basis but taught more hours than her full-time colleagues for less pay - has been awarded a record £25,000 compensation and is being transferred to a full-time permanent contract. The TUC has welcomed the result.
Sue Birch (Picture: The Independent)
The settlement is a breakthrough in efforts to win fair treatment for the 30,000 hourly paid lecturers in new universities - and successfully concludes a three year case against Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) by lecturers’ union NATFHE. The university agreed to an unprecedented settlement just before the case was due to go to a final hearing.
An earlier judgment on the legal principles of the case clearly set out the need to change the structure of the employment relationships between universities and hourly paid lecturers.
Ms Birch has worked at LMU for seven years as a lecturer in the teaching of English as a foreign language and as a teacher trainer. For several years she taught more hours than colleagues who were employed on full-time contracts doing broadly similar work, yet earned as much as £10,000 a year less. She was denied career development opportunities and had to work excessively long hours to earn sufficient income.
Ms Birch is the first hourly paid UK teaching professional to successfully use the Part Time Workers (Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 to challenge an employer on the difference in treatment between part-time hourly paid and full time staff.
Susan Birch said:
‘I sought a fair deal after reading about new laws to protect part-time employees. My employers seemed sympathetic but said the university simply could not afford fractional contracts. Most colleagues were sympathetic, though the phrase ‘part-time’ still conjures up ‘pin-money’ in the minds of some grey-suited men of a certain age.
‘It has been three years of immense pressure, but I simply could not accept such a patently unfair situation. Litigation is not for the faint-hearted or those acting alone, but I had the support of my union NATFHE, for which I am immensely grateful.
‘The money will pay off debts but I hope this result will help the thousands of part-time staff in education who suffer similar discrimination. Now I just want to get on with my life and my career.’
NATFHE general secretary Paul Mackney said:
‘The case establishes that part-time lecturers are entitled to equal, pro-rata pay rates to full-time colleagues. The settlement shows that the employer saw the justice of the case and that the only equitable solution was to give Susan Birch a full-time job with a record amount of compensation for the difficulties she has suffered.
‘This will bring confidence and hope to thousands of badly paid lecturers in further and higher education. Over 40% of university teaching staff are on hourly-paid contracts. Many experience poverty pay, job insecurity, and poor working conditions – often not even having a desk. The FE sector also depends heavily on a vast army of hourly-paid, part-time staff, many on exploitative contracts.
‘We want to see part-time staff employed on fractional contracts with equivalent rates of pay and conditions to full-time colleagues. This victory is one more step towards achieving that.’
TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said:
‘This result should send a warning to all university employers and employers beyond the higher education world not to be tempted into treating part time workers in a shoddy and unfair way.
‘NATFHE must be congratulated for bringing the case and showing that unions are determined to win a better deal for part time workers everywhere.’
NOTES
The Judgment: The employer in this case argued that as Ms Birch was on a different type of contract to full-time colleagues, there was no obligation to pay her the same rate as them. But in a landmark judgment in February 2005 an employment tribunal ruled that as she was undertaking broadly similar work to the cited full-time comparators she was entitled to claim equal treatment under the regulations. The tribunal also ruled that an employer who offers a restricted range of duties to part-time employees may be treating them less favourably than comparable full-time employees.
NATFHE cited the recent Court of Appeal judgment in the Matthews case (the retained fire-fighters case) which opened the way for part-time workers to bring discrimination claims against employers regardless of the difference in the form of contract for part-time staff.
The settlement included:
- Transfer to a full time Senior Lecturer contract with placement half way up the SL scale in the national contract.
- A financial contribution towards the fees of MA course.
- £25,000 compensation.
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