The Appeal Tribunal in the case of City of Edinburgh v Wilkinson has examined the meaning of "the same establishment" for the purposes of determining whether or not men and women were paid for like work at the same establishment.
In this case the Council argued that because the white collar workers who were bringing the claim were not only at a different physical location but did a different job to bonus earning manual workers, they could not be compared (use as comparators). Effectively the Council said that the manual workers were not employed at the same establishment, for example grave diggers did not work in Schools or under the same terms and conditions. The Tribunal in the first instance found in favour of the employees and so the employer appealed.
In the Appeal Tribunal the Tribunal ruled that the Council was one single establishment for pay purposes, regardless of location. As the Council was responsible for setting the pay terms of both the employees who were claiming and the comparators, the terms were from a single source and therefore the employees employees were to be considered as at the same establishment.
This ruling will of course concern many Local Authorities, but should also be studied with some care by any employers of men and women across different locations, where the employer had previously felt that the staff would not be treated as being at the same establishment by reason of being in a different location. If the source of the terms and conditions is the same, it is likely following this ruling (unless this ruling is appealed further) that a Court or Tribunal will find that employees are of the same establishment even if their geographical location is different.