A government challenge to a decision ruling over 200 judge’s pension arrangements as discriminatory has been dismissed.
The case centred on the issue of equal pay, with the Employment Appeal Tribunal finding last year that 210 claimants had been treated ‘less favourably than their comparators because of their age’.
Ruling on the case, Judge Stuart Williams stated that the Ministry of Justice and Lord Chancellor has ‘failed to show their treatment of the claimants to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.’
This decision – which ruled the transitional pension arrangements to be unlawful age discrimination – was appealed by the government and dismissed earlier this week. However, Sir Alan Wilkie granted the MoJ and Lord Chancellor permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal.
He stated that the earlier ruling had failed to address the issue of equal pay and questioned whether other claims raised – including sex and race discrimination – had been sufficiently dealt with either.
The deadline for the government to file grounds of appeal is 19 March.
