The Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister

Notice is hereby given that the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972, made on 21 March 2005 a Statutory Rule entitled: -

Equal Pay Act 1970(Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

The Regulations, which come into operation on 3rd April 2005, will make changes to the procedure followed by industrial tribunals when determining proceedings where there is a question as to whether the claimant and the comparator are doing work of equal value. The Regulations amend section 2A of the Equal Pay Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 by removing the “no reasonable grounds” defence and allowing the tribunal to choose to determine the question of equal value itself or to appoint an independent expert to prepare a report on that question. The Regulations also provide guidance to the industrial tribunal where a job evaluation study has given different values to the two jobs. In such cases it is provided that the tribunal should conclude that the work is not of equal value unless it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the job evaluation study itself discriminated on grounds of sex, or is otherwise not suitable to be relied upon.

Copies of the Regulations may be purchased from the Stationery Office Bookshop, 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD.