Ali v Capita Customer Management Ltd; Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police v Hextall [2019] EWCA Civ 900 CA

In both these cases, the Court of Appeal held that men who take shared parental leave are not being discriminated against if they receive statutory payments instead of the enhanced rates paid to women on maternity leave. This is because the court concluded that Mr Ali and Mr Hextall should not have been comparing themselves to women on maternity leave, but to women who might also be taking shared parental leave. These women would also have been paid the statutory rates.

These were both complex cases that were first heard by the Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunal before reaching the Court of Appeal. However, employers should not rule out the possibility of an appeal to the Supreme Court, given the importance of the issues involved and the intervention of the UK’s work-life balance charity, Working Families.