Time to enforce equal pay pledge

The Guardian today (30th October 09) printed the following joint letter on equal pay from a coalition of trade unions and equality campaigners, including Fawcett, UNISON and the TUC. The article can be viewed online here.

"Today, women across the UK effectively receive their last pay cheque of the year. The full-time gap between women and men – at 17.1% - is equivalent to men being paid all the year round while women work for free after 30th October. It’s been almost 40 years since the Equal Pay Act was introduced but the gender pay gap is still here – and what’s worse, it’s getting wider.

We welcome the Equality Bill, which offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to put measures in place that would really start to narrow the gap. On Equal Pay Day 2009 we urge the Government to make a start by introducing mandatory pay audits. Although this would not in itself stop the problems caused by gender job segregation, where greater numbers of women are concentrated in jobs that pay less well, it would make a big difference. By legally requiring that employers show what they are paying to who and by requiring them to rectify any gender based inequalities the problem can be tackled in all workplaces.

Women suffering pay discrimination must also be given greater access to justice. Allowing women to point to hypothetical male comparators would bring equal pay law into line with other discrimination law. Enabling representative actions would mean women collectively affected by systemic pay discrimination could make a claim together, represented by a trade union or other body. This would make the Employment Tribunal system more efficient, cost-effective and better able to deliver justice to women.

It’s time to end pay discrimination for women and deliver on a pledge made nearly 40 years ago."

Signed:
Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive, Fawcett Society
Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON
Brendan Barber, General Secretary, TUC
Sally Hunt, General Secretary, UCU
Olivia Bailey, National Women’s Officer, NUS
Cath Speight, Unite
Amanda Ariss, Chief Executive, Equality and Diversity Forum
Discrimination Law Association
Professor Aileen McColgan, Kings College London
Professor Ruth Lister CBE FBA, Loughborough University
Karon Monaghan QC, Matrix Chambers
Kate Wareing, Director for UK poverty, Oxfam
Sarah Jackson, Chief Executive, Working Families
Fiona Weir, Chief Executive, Gingerbread
Vivienne Hayes, Chief Executive, Women’s Resource Centre
Sarah Payne, Chief Executive, YWCA
Neal Lawson, Chair, Compass
Mark Donne, Director, Fair Pay Network
Sophie Cameron, Practical Law