Scottish cases break new ground

In Snell v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd an employment tribunal in Glasgow looked at the issue of parity of shared parental pay. Mr Snell and his wife both worked for Network Rail and intended sharing parental leave. It transpired that the mother of the child received enhanced parental pay and the father statutory parental pay. Network Rail contested the claim for direct sex discrimination but not that of indirect sex discrimination. The ET awarded £28,321.03.

In Glasgow City Council v Dahhan it was agreed by the parties that an employment tribunal could set aside a settlement agreement where there was error or misrepresentation. However, the issue of capacity (which was the basis of the challenge by Mr Dahhan) had not previously arisen.

In the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s judgment, Lady Wise held that “there is no sound basis for drawing a distinction between invalidity on the ground of, say, misrepresentation on the one hand and invalidity on the ground of lack of capacity to contract on the other”.