A LECTURER in East Lancashire is to spearhead a landmark pan-European test case on the pay and pension rights of part-time workers.

Debra Allonby, 42, says she was discriminated against when Accrington and Rossendale College decided to switch all its part-time hourly-paid staff to a national agency that provides contract labour.

She says most of the affected workers were female and the decision impacted unfairly on women part-timers.

Miss Allonby was a part-time lecturer at the college from 1990 until 1996 when the college decided not to renew her annual contract, or that of any of its 341 part-time, hourly-paid staff.

Instead, she and others were told that if they wished to continue working at the college, they would have to become self-employed and work through an agency, Education Lecturing Services (ELS).

The college's move, which the Appeal Court heard was designed to reduce its overheads by £13,000 a year, has led to its involvement in a legal morass which is still by no means over.

Tens of thousands of pounds in legal costs bills have been run up in hearings before an Employment Tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal and now London's Civil Appeal Court.

Three Appeal Court judges ruled that Miss Allonby's claims of sex discrimination over her treatment should be considered for a second time by an Employment Tribunal.

And, in a rare move, they referred the case for the opinion of the European Court of Justice on issues raised on the equal pay and pension rights of part-time workers. Tess Gill, for Miss Allonby, had earlier told the judges that the college's 1996 decision to outsource predominantly female part-time workers amounted to 'a form of segregation.'

"After six years in employment, she was deprived of her career," said Miss Gill.

Of the 341 part-time staff affected by the outsourcing decision, 231 were women, she added.

She compared that to the situation of the 105 full-time staff who remained directly employed by the college, 55 of whom were men.

She told the judges the college was in the throes of a cash crisis at the time and was concerned that recent changes in employment law would require it to provide predominantly female part-time lecturing staff with the same benefits as full-timers.