Tories tear up equal pay law

Louise Nousratpour, Equalities Reporter
Thursday December 2, 2010
The Morning Star

The government scrapped legislation today that would put a legal duty on employers to disclose whether they pay women less than men.

Business organisations rejoiced at Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone's decision not to enact Labour plans to extend mandatory gender pay reporting to private companies with 250-plus employees.

Employers will be left to police themselves about whether they are breaking equal pay law - despite clear evidence that the voluntary approach has failed.

Ms Featherstone also confirmed the government's intention to scrap the socio-economic clause, which would have put legal duties on public authorities to reduce inequality by taking into account disadvantage and poverty when making decisions about policies.

Publishing the government's equality strategy today, she said: "We want to move away from the arrogant notion that government knows best."

Under the now scrapped section 78 of the Equality Act 2010, employers had been given until April 2013 to make voluntary arrangements work or face mandatory pay audits.

But the coalition government has now kicked equal pay further into the long grass by giving no deadlines to bring rogue employers in line.

Adam Marshall of bosses' club the British Chambers of Commerce hailed the government for removing "the burden of compulsory gender pay reporting."

Fellow fat cat Miles Templeman of the Institute of Directors even blamed women for pay discrimination, claiming: "Hard evidence shows that influences and choices made by women at the pre-employment stage are what generally lead to average gender pay differences."

Public-sector union Unison general secretary Dave Prentis slammed the decision to abandon legal pay audits as yet more evidence that this government is no friend of women.

"Women public-sector workers face a triple whammy - frozen pay, cuts to services and now further delays in giving them equal pay," he said.

"It is a disgrace that women are still getting paid less than men. This move threatens to turn the clocks back on all the progress already made with equal pay."

A landmark study today put Britain in the bottom four of the OECD countries in terms of equal parenting, the gender pay gap and other equality issues.

The Fatherhood Institute highlighted that women were still paid on average 21 less than men in Britain compared with 9.3 per cent in Belgium.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The decision not to introduce mandatory gender pay reporting, despite the failure of the voluntary approach, will allow employers to continue to obscure sex discrimination in pay systems."

But he welcomed government plans to introduce positive action measures and extend the right to request flexible working to everyone, not just parents and carers.

"Allowing employers to choose a woman over a man of equal merit when recruiting will help to overcome the ingrained sexism still rife in some workplaces," Mr Barber said.

louise@peoples-press.com