Maternity pay - 1: Shared parental pay - 0

The Court of Appeal held that paying men on shared parental leave less than women on maternity leave  was not discriminatory.  The appropriate comparator for a man on shared parental leave was a woman on shared parental leave and not a woman on maternity leave.  As a woman on shared parental leave would have been paid the same as a man the direct sex discrimination claim brought by Mr Ali was unsuccessful.  Although Mr Hextall's case was rightly categorised as an equal terms claim, the Equality Act states that "a sex equality clause does not have effect in relation to the terms of work affording special treatment to women in connection with pregnancy or childbirth". As such, his claim also failed.