Facts
X., a lawyer, was hired in 1997 by Insurance Company [Y.] with a gross monthly salary of 7,500 francs. She was then promoted to a managerial position in 1999 with a salary of 7,800 francs per month. In 2001, her employment contract was taken over by Insurance Company V., with a gross annual salary of 98,000 francs for an 80% workload. In 2003, V. dismissed X. after she had requested adjustments to her employment contract to address gender-based wage discrimination.
X. filed a claim against [Y.] before the Labor Court of Geneva, requesting, among other things, the payment of non-discriminatory back pay for the period from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2001. She expressly requested that a court-ordered expert opinion be issued to establish the equivalence of her functions compared to those of three other lawyers in the company ([E.], [D.], [G.], and H.).
The cantonal courts rejected the request for an expert opinion and dismissed X.'s claims in their entirety.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal upheld X.'s appeal and annulled the cantonal judgment. It considered that the cantonal court had violated the duty of extensive examination incumbent upon it under Art. 12(2) of the Gender Equality Act (LEg) by refusing to order the expert opinion requested by X. to determine the equivalence of her functions compared to those of [E.], [D.], [G.], and H.
According to the Federal Tribunal, the reasoning of the cantonal court,…