Ms S Beg v HSBC Global Services (UK) Limited — 2019

Employment Judge Brook, sitting alone on 14 March 2019, determined preliminary issues arising from Ms S Beg's attempt to pursue pay-related claims against HSBC Global Services (UK) Ltd. The tribunal held that the Equal Pay provisions in sections 64 et seq of the Equality Act 2010 form a contractual regime for employees and deemed employees, and that Ms Beg, as a contract worker and not an employee of HSBC, had no locus to bring an equal pay claim against HSBC as principal.

The tribunal rejected the respondent's submission that the equal pay provisions and sections 70 and 71 excluded any sex discrimination claim based on pay disparity. It held that a contract worker may in principle bring a sex discrimination claim under section 41 of the Equality Act 2010 founded on gender-based disparity in the terms on which the principal permits the worker to work, although evidential issues and the 'single source' criterion identified in Allonby may be relevant if such a claim is later pleaded.

On res judicata and issue estoppel, the tribunal read Employment Judge Hyde's 18 October 2018 decision as confined to the proposed equal pay amendment. Judge Hyde had refused amendment because Ms Beg was not an employee for equal pay purposes, but had not finally decided whether a sex discrimination claim under section 41 could be brought by amendment. The tribunal therefore held that the earlier decision did not prevent Ms Beg from applying to amend to plead sex discrimination claims based on the same underlying pay-disparity allegations.