A workplace issue

It is now 43 years since the Equal Pay Act came into force, but there is still a massive inequality between men’s and women’s pay. There is a 14% gap between men’s and women’s full-time hourly rates, and a shocking 35% gap when you compare women’s part time hourly rate to men’s full-time hourly rate.

These headline figures represent a lifetime of pay inequality for women. This inequality is a contributing fact to women and children’s higher levels of poverty and women’s pensioner poverty.

It also impacts on household earnings and on men’s earnings when they work in sectors or occupations with high levels of female workers.

The trade union movement has been at the forefront of the campaign for equal pay, and it is vital that this commitment to the issue is reflected in workplace reps’ bargaining strategies.

The toolkit Public Sector Equality Duty: a toolkit for trade union reps was successfully launched in Glasgow in June 2012.

The toolkit is designed to give trade union reps an understanding of the Public Sector Equality Duty, what employers are obliged to do under the duty, and how reps can use the duty for the benefit of their members. You can download a copy here: Public Sector Equality Duty: a toolkit for trade union reps.