Member Article

The on-going story of equal pay

Equal pay - the beginning;

• 1906 - The National Federation of Women’s Workers {NFWW} was formed by Mary Macarthur in an attempt to organise and unionise women workers in Britain.
• 1914-1918 - The First World War meant that women were brought into the workforce in large numbers to fill the jobs vacated by men.
• 1956 - British legal reforms say that women teachers and civil servants should receive equal pay.
• 1968 - Female workers at the Ford plant in Dagenham went on strike for three weeks demanding equal pay. They argued that their work as machinists was equal to the highly skilled production jobs done by men. Their case was brought to the attention of Barbara Castle, the then Employment Minister. A film on the subject; “Made in Dagenham” was released in 2010 and nominated for 4 BAFTA Film Awards.
• 1976 - The Equal Opportunities Commission, {EOC} now the Equality and Human Rights Commission, {EHRC} is set up to enforce the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act and the Equal Pay Act. The Commission campaigned on all gender related issues in the UK.
• 2010 - The Equality Act
• 2011 - The Government consulted on modern workplaces.
• 2013 - The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act

The Government response to the workplace consultation confirmed its commitment to proceeding with proposals to order an employer to conduct an equal pay audit, where it has discrimiminated on the ground of sex in contractual or non-contractual pay.

The second consultation, which closes on the 18th July 2013, seeks views on the further detail of equal pay audits and the likely contents of impending legislation in relation to equal pay audits. The Government hopes the legislation will come into force in 2014.

The legislative framework for regulations relating to equal pay audits is contained in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which includes the power to make regulations requiring Employment Tribunals to order an equal pay audit where the employer has breached the equal pay provisions under the Equality Act 2010.

Under the legislation, Employment Tribunals will have the power to impose, repeatadly if necessary, a civil penalty of up to £5,000 for non-compliance with an equal pay order. Micro {fewer than 10 employees} and start-up businesses will initially be exempt from the proposals.

• 2013 - The current gender pay gap is estimated at between 10 - 20%. Recent studies have suggested that it may take 30, 70 or 100 years to achieve equal pay.

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Andrew Dane .