Can employees doing different work bring their equal pay claims on the same claim form?

In the recent decision of Farmah & ors v. Birmingham City Council & ors, the EAT held that claimants could not bring equal pay claims on the same ET1 form where they were carrying out different work. Rule 9 of the Employment Tribunal Rules 2013 (the Rules) states that two or more claimants “may make their claims on the same claim form if their claims are based on the same set of facts”.
Three of the appellants were retail staff doing different jobs in supermarkets and claiming that they were performing equal work to men working in distribution centres. The women all included their claims in the same claim form. Some of the affected men argued in the same ET1 that, if the women were successful, they did equal work with the female claimants. The remaining two appellants undertook different jobs in local government and claimed their work was equal to that of men performing a variety of jobs. The respondents argued that the claims should be struck out on the basis that they did not comply with Rule 9 of the Rules.
The EAT found the fact that the claimants were performing different work and, even if based on the same comparator, did not satisfy the definition under Rule 9 of the Rules. Therefore, the use of a single claim form was in breach of Rule 9. Under Rule 6 of the Rules, wrongly including claims by two or more claimants in the same claim form is an irregularity and the Tribunal is a permitted to “take such action as it considers just” as a consequence, up to and including striking out the claims.
The full case report can be found here: Farmah & ors v Birmingham City Council & ors.