Male workers at Welsh university win equal pay claim

A university in Wales has said it will not contest an equal pay claim brought by 18 male caretakers, plumbers and maintenance staff.

According to a report on the BBC, Peter Wallington QC – counsel for the University of Wales Trinity Saint David – told the Cardiff Employment Tribunal: “In light of the evidence that was agreed….., I have taken some further instructions from the respondents who concede the (claim of) equal pay was well founded.”

The claimants had originally been employed by Swansea Metropolitan University, which merged with UWTSD in August 2013.

They had been employed on contracts stipulating a 45-hour weeking week. However, regulations came in that would standardise a 37-hour week.

Management at the university agreed to guarantee the men eight more hours in overtime.

When the men came to sign the revised contracts, they realised that they were on  a lower hourly rate than women on the same pay scale.

In their equal pay claim, they compared themselves with female employees who were working as secretaries and library assistants.

A spokesman for UWTSD told the BBC that it had no involvement in the decisions made by Swansea Metropolitan University made in 2007.

He added: "This was a complex case and we are very disappointed that the new university now has to deal with, in an appropriate manner and with due care, the consequences of historical decisions.”

The amount of compensation to be paid has yet to be agreed. The claimants say they were underpaid by an average of £4,000 a year over a six-year period.