“…although I have previously found in Edge and others that the RPTS chairs were engaged in broadly similar work to that of Tax Judges in the FTT neither group has the right not to be treated less favourably than the comparator group because the reason why their terms and conditions with regard to both rates of pay and pensions was less favourable than their comparators was wholly unconnected with their part-time status.”
“The Respondent will only be liable if it is established that the Applicant’s part-time status is (to a significant extent) the reason why his remuneration is, pro rata, less than that of his comparator. That necessitates an enquiry as to how the differential came about.”
“The terms and conditions for RPTS judges and their comparators developed in different silos and the fact that the latter acquired terms which were pro rata more favourable than the former does not by itself justify the inference that the difference between them was that one group was full-time and the other part-time.”
“I suspect also that if there is really an arguable point on the ‘reason why’ case which I have failed to identify in the submissions made by the Applicant, the claimants affected by it in the pension cases would rather it was argued by counsel charged with the conduct of that case, and in the context of the facts of that case (which may not, though I am in no position to form a view, be identical), even at the cost of some delay.”
“…. Those pension arrangements differed from the mainstream of judicial post holders in that they were not, and did not accurately mirror, the statutory Judicial Pension Scheme. Instead they were something of a mish-mash of so called ‘by analogy’ schemes – schemes analogous to the various iterations of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme…”
“….. (1) A full or 100% JUPRA (Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act) equivalent pension calculated in accordance with theJudicial Pension (Fee Paid Judges) Regulations 2017 (FPJPS), in respect of all of his service in RPTS since April 2000; or ……”
“Is the RPTS Judge entitled to a pension calculated on the same basis as a Tax Chamber Judge, no further analysis of whether the difference in treatment is because of part time status being justified? …”
“…. The respondents are at liberty to contend that while the primary ‘reason why’ a person was denied a pension may have been part time status, a different ‘reason why’ is in play when the question of the remedy to which that person is entitled as a result of that less favourable treatment falls to be considered...”
“22…The ‘reason why’ point has been decided in respect of liability and in MOJ v Edge and Burton it was held that a different ‘reason why’ point could apply to remedy as well. The MOJ’s proposals simply reflect that position….”
“…. the nature of the pension that would have been in payment absent the discriminatory exclusion of the fee paid office holders in RPTS….”
“…What matters is not whether the respondents have failed to explain the basis on which the pensions for Presidents and Vice-Presidents have been calculated, but whether what the respondents are offering to Mr Engel is the same as that offered to the Presidents and Vice-Presidents….”
“…. The correct analysis is that full time workers in two different tribunals had different pension provisions and that necessarily affects the remedy available to part time claimants from those tribunals. This is the ‘reason why’ remedy point, the exact point that the respondents were given permission to argue by the Employment Appeal Tribunal in MOJ v Edge and Burton.”
“…The problem here is not one of comparison between part timers being treated differently because of their part time status but because of their appointment to different, historically independent jurisdictions prior to their transfer in to the FTT. Each claimant’s remedy will be based on JUPRA for service from the date when their tribunal moved into the FTT….”
“If the 2017 FPJPS Regulations on [their] face give[s] a full 100% pension then the just and equitable remedy under the PTWR should be the same amount.”
“2. Tribunal declares that under thePart-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 , the claimant’s pension in respect of his service as an RPTS (Residential Property Tribunal Service) Chairman and Judge is to be a 100% JUPRA (Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993 ) equivalent pension in respect of his service from1 July 2013 to10 May 2014 and a 50% JUPRA equivalent pension in respect of his service from7 April 2000 to30 June 2013 . The figures to be used to calculate the claimant’s pension are not to include the differential between the rates of pay of Tax Judges and RPTS Chairs/Judges.”
“…. if there was a non-discriminatory reason for the treatment as well as the discriminatory reason, that could be relevant to the question of remedy.”
“As Mr Charles Bourne QC and Ms Kamm put it in their skeleton argument, the purpose of the legislation is not to redress any and all injustices that may exist; it is to redress the less favourable treatment of part-time workers if and only if that treatment occurs because they are part-time workers.”
“9…The Respondent will only be liable if it is established that the Applicant’s part-time status is (to a significant extent) the reason why his remuneration is, pro rata, less than his comparator. That necessitates an enquiry as to how the differential came about… … 12…The terms and conditions for RPTS judges and their comparators developed in different silos and the fact that the latter acquired terms which were, pro rata, more favourable than the former does not by itself justify the inference that the difference between them was that one group was full-time and the other part-time. In any event a judgment of that kind is one which a specialist tribunal is well placed to make; and this Court would be very slow to interfere.”
“24…. The issue now is the nature of the pension that would have been in payment absent the discriminatory exclusion of fee paid office holders in RPTS and the only guide to that, according to the respondents, is the pension actually paid to the Vice-Presidents. …The respondents must therefore be free to rely on the Vice-Presidents in the way they seek to do.”
“At paragraph 14(5) Mr Engel submits that the ‘reason why’ defence applies to defeat the contention by the respondents that his pension should be based on the pensions of Vice-Presidents in RPTS. He submits that this is so because the ‘reason why’ defence applied due to the different histories leading to the pay differentials between full time Tax Judges and part time RPTS chairs.”
“What is the infringement to which the complaint relates? It is the failure to provide pensions to fee paid lawyer and valuer chairs sitting in the former Residential Property Tribunal Service (reg 8(9)(a)). What is the benefit which Mr Engel might reasonably be expected to have had but for the infringement (reg 8(10)(b))? It is at this point that the ‘reason why’ question enters the discussion. The reason why the terms and conditions of all judicial office holders in RPTS differed from those in other jurisdictions (and why the terms and conditions of judges in other tribunals ranged over a wide spectrum of fee levels and circumstances in which fees were payable) was because of the piecemeal growth of tribunals, each created by a different department of government and each of which historically set their own terms and conditions. It had nothing to do with part-time status. There is therefore no question of Mr Engel being able to claim that his daily sitting fee should have been £y rather than £x just because he could show that a salaried judge in another jurisdiction received the equivalent of £y per day. As the reason for the different rates of pay was not his part-time status no claim would lie under reg 5. For the same reason, the benefit which Mr Engel might reasonably be expected to have had but for the infringement was a pension arrangement of the same kind as those enjoyed by his more senior judicial colleagues within the same jurisdiction, not the pension arrangements made for other judges in other, historically independent jurisdictions.”