A school teacher from Wedmore is at the centre of an Appeal Court battle against her education authority.

Christine Pike says she was discriminated against because her part-time earnings didn't count towards her pension.

She is spearheading a claim by 74 teachers who retired but returned to work part-time before March 31, 2000.

They all say that rules preventing them from treating their post-retirement part-time employment as "pensionable" are in breach of the Equal Pay Act and European directives, because other teachers who retired but returned to work full-time were able to treat their employment as pensionable.

Lawyers argue that because there was distinction between part-time and full-time returnees, the regulations "indirectly" discriminated against women – who were more likely to work part time – and are not "objectively justified".

The court heard that Mrs Pike, now 63, was employed as a teacher at Wedmore First School in Wedmore, near Cheddar, between 1982 and December 1993, when she retired on the grounds of ill health.

But, in January 1994, she returned to work part-time, earning about £10,000 a year.

Somerset County Council and the Department for Education and Skills are appealing against an Employment Appeal Tribunal hearing last year in which Judge Jeremy McMullen QC rejected its arguments that Mrs Pike's discrimination claim should be "struck out".

At the Court of Appeal yesterday, judges reserved their judgement until an unspecified later date.