Employment Equality Act, 1977

Equality clause.

4.—(1) If the terms of a contract under which a person is employed do not include (whether directly or by reference to a collective agreement within the meaning of the Act of 1974 or otherwise) an equality clause, they shall be deemed to include one.

(2) An equality clause is a provision which relates to terms of a contract (other than a term relating to remuneration or an occupational pension scheme) under which a person is employed and has the effect that where the person is employed in circumstances where the work done by that person is not materially different from that being done by a person of the other sex (in this section referred to as “the other person”) in the same employment—

(a) if (apart from the equality clause) any term of the contract is or becomes less favourable to the person than a term of a similar kind in the contract under which the other person is employed, that term of the person's contract shall be treated as so modified as not to be less favourable, and

(b) if (apart from the equality clause) at any time the person's contract does not include a term corresponding to a term benefiting the other person included in the contract under which the other person is employed, the person's contract shall be treated as including such a term.

(3) An equality clause shall not operate in relation to a variation between a person's contract of employment and the contract of employment of the other person if the employer proves that the variation is genuinely a consequence of a material difference (other than the difference of sex) between the two cases.

(4) Where a person offers a person employment on certain terms, and if on his acceptance of the offer any of those terms would fall to be modified or any additional term would fall to be included by virtue of this section, the offer shall be taken to contravene sections 3 (1) and 3 (4).