“More effort needed for equal pay” - EOC

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has called on the government to speed up the process of getting equal pay for women, saying it could take at least another 30 years to close the 20% gap between women's and men's average earnings at the current rate of progress.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act in May, EOC chair Julie Mellor said: "This is an issue about which everyone needs to develop a sense of urgency. If the government does decide legal changes are needed as a result of their review we will be urging them to introduce those changes in the next session". The government set up an equal pay task force last year to look at how the pay gap can be closed.

Meanwhile the Labour Research Department's negotiators' journal, Bargaining Report, has confirmed the slow rate of progress through legal avenues in its latest survey of equal pay claims. In the last year only one case was upheld by the tribunals, a case of warehouse operatives at Basford Home Fashions. However, a further eight were settled out of court, the largest of these being worth £49,000 for sewing machinists at UBU.

"Like work" cases, where the comparison is not based on the fact that the claimants are doing work of equal value but that they are doing the same or broadly similar work, were more likely to succeed.

Full details of the Bargaining Report equal pay claim survey can be found in the June 2000 issue, available from the Labour Research Department, 78 Blackfriars Road, SE1 8HF; tel: 020 7928 3649.