Commission warns that new law will hinder equal pay claims

Legal claims by women workers that they are being paid less than a man doing a job worth the same as theirs, will be far more difficult under proposed changes to equal pay law, says the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

The commission was responding to the government's consultation document Equality and diversity: the way ahead.

If a job evaluation had already been carried out and rated the jobs differently, the new proposal says it will be the responsibility of the woman who claims unequal pay to prove the evaluation scheme was flawed.

But the EOC points out that most people do not have the necessary knowledge to point out the deficiencies in a job evaluation scheme.

EOC chair Julie Mellor, said: "Analysing a job evaluation scheme is a very specialist task. Individual women cannot be expected to carry out that analysis and then persuade a tribunal that the scheme is flawed. In practice this would be a serious barrier to many women who wanted to bring an equal pay claim."