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European Union Matters: Levez v T J Jennings (Harlow Pools) Limited ECJ: December 1998

United Kingdom
28/01/1999
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Levez v T J Jennings (Harlow Pools) Limited ECJ: December 1998

This case concerns a female employee who, after she left her job, discovered that her male predecessor had been paid more than her but that her employer had concealed this from her. She brought a claim under the Equal Pay Act for arrears of pay. In his opinion delivered in May 1998, the Advocate General recommended that, instead of applying the two year time limit of the Equal Pay Act, a six year limitation period should apply. This was on the basis that normally a claim for unpaid pay by an employee would be governed by the rules of contract law under which the limitation period is six years. Therefore, a stricter time limit for claims relating to sex discrimination would make it more difficult to enforce rights under European law than other similar rights under the national law. The ECJ did not go as far as the Advocate General. It accepted that the 2 year time limit was incompatible with European law but only because there was no possibility of the 2 year limit being extended. It also decided that the matter should be remitted to the national court to determine whether the employee could have obtained her remedy via other means (in this case an action in the County Court) or whether such a claim would entail procedural rules or other or other conditions which were less favourable than those applicable to similar domestic actions.

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