BAILII [Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Search] [Feedback]

Northern Irish Legislation

You are here:  BAILII >> Databases >> Northern Irish Legislation >> EQUAL PAY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1970

[Index] [Table] [Search] [Notes] [Noteup] [Previous] [Next] [Download] [Help]


EQUAL PAY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1970 - SECT 3

1965 c.19

3.(1) Where a collective agreement made before or after the commencement of
this Act contains any provision applying specifically to men only or to women
only, the agreement may be referred, by any party to it or by the Department,
to the Industrial Court constituted under Part I of the
Industrial Courts Act 1919 to declare what amendments need to be made in the
agreement, in accordance with subsection (4), so as to remove that
discrimination between men and women.

(2) Where on a reference under subsection (1) the Industrial Court have
declared the amendments needing to be made in a collective agreement in
accordance with that subsection, then

(a)in so far as the terms and conditions of a person's employment are
dependent on that agreement, they shall be ascertained by reference to the
agreement as so amended, and any contract regulating those terms and
conditions shall have effect accordingly; and

[(b)if an award or determination is, or has been, made under any statutory
provision requiring an employer to observe the collective agreement, that
award or determination shall have effect by reference to the agreement as so
amended.]

(3) On a reference under subsection (1) the Industrial Court may direct that
all or any of the amendments needing to be made in the collective agreement
shall be treated as not becoming effective until a date after their decision,
or as having been effective from a date before their decision but not before
the reference to them, and may specify different dates for different purposes;
and subsection (2) and any such contract, award or determination as is there
mentioned shall have or be deemed to have had effect accordingly.

(4) Subject to section 6, the amendments to be made in a collective agreement
under this section shall be such as are needed

(a)to extend to both men and women any provision applying specifically to men
only or to women only; and

(b)to eliminate any resulting duplication in the provisions of the agreement
in such a way as not to make the terms and conditions agreed for men, or those
agreed for women, less favourable in any respect than they would have been
without the amendments;

(5) For the purposes of this section "collective agreement" means any
agreement as to terms and conditions of employment, being an agreement between

(a)parties who are or represent employers or organisations of employers or
associations of such organisations; and

(b)parties who are or represent organisations of employees or associations of
such organisations;

(6) Subsections (1) to (4) (except subsection (2)(b) and subsection (3) in so
far as it relates to subsection (2)(b)) shall have effect in relation to an
employer's pay structure as they have effect in relation to a
collective agreement, with the adaptation that a reference to the Industrial
Court may be made by the employer or by the Department, and for this purpose
"pay structure" means any arrangements adopted by an employer (with or without
any associated employer) which fix common terms and conditions of employment
for his employees or any class of his employees, and of which the provisions
are generally known or open to be known by the employees concerned.

(7) In this section

(a)"employment" and related expressions, and the reference to an associated
employer, shall be construed in the same way as in section 1;

(b)"transferred provision" has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(g) of
the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954;

1954 c.33



[Index] [Table] [Search] [Notes] [Noteup] [Previous] [Next] [Download] [Help]

© 1970 Crown Copyright

BAILII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.bailii.org/nie/legis/num_act/epai1970271/s3.html