Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Ratification: 1971)

Other comments on C100

Observation

Direct Request

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Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Gender pay gap. The Committee notes that according to the Office of National Statistics, the hourly earnings (median full-time gross hourly earnings) excluding overtime of employees were by April 2013, £13.60 for men and £12.24 for women, and that the pay gap between male and female full-time employees was 10 per cent. It has risen by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year. The Government indicates that overtime is not included in the calculation because it can skew the results given that men work relatively more overtime than women and that women are more likely to work part time. In addition, full-time jobs tend to be higher paid than part-time jobs. The Committee notes from the “Think, Act, Report” second year report that 87 per cent of men and 57.1 per cent of women work full time and 13 per cent of men and 42.9 per cent of women work part-time, where full-time workers earn £13.03 per hour and part-time workers £8.01 per hour, reflecting an earnings gap of 39.53 per cent. The largest gender pay gap in 2013 concerned the health professionals (25.7 per cent), the business, finance and related associate professionals (20.4 per cent) and the sales, marketing and related associate professionals (16.6 per cent). The Committee notes the information provided by the Government concerning the measures adopted or envisaged to tackle the overall gender pay gap, including plans to extend the right to request flexible working hours and establish a flexible parental leave system in 2015. The Government also refers to the recommendations of the Women’s Business Council, following which the Government adopted the Women and the Economy Action Plan in November 2013. The Government also launched, in October 2012, the Equality Advisory and Support Service aimed at individuals who need expert advice and support on discrimination issues, including sex discrimination. The Government also refers to pay audits as an instrument to address the gender pay gap. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on the evolution of the gender pay gap in the public and the private sectors, and on the concrete measures taken to address the existing gender pay gap and the impact thereon. Please include statistics on the prevalence of overtime, disaggregated by sex and sector of employment, and its impact on the wages of men and women. The Government is requested, in particular, to provide information on the measures taken to address the underlying causes of the gender pay gap, including the vertical and horizontal occupational segregation and the impact of these measures on the participation of women in the labour market, especially in full-time jobs as well as the obstacles encountered. Please provide information on the implementation of the Women and the Economy Action Plan and the Equality Advisory and Support Service in relation to the application of the principle of the Convention and the gender pay gap.

Public sector. The Government refers to the measures adopted for the implementation of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and the possibility to impose specific duties to meet the main aims of the PSED. The Committee notes that in England, Wales and Scotland, these specific duties require, among others, to publish objectives and results to demonstrate compliance, and in Scotland they also require the undertaking of an equality impact assessment of policies and practices. In Wales, the Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) Regulations 2011 include a requirement for public authorities to collect information on gender pay differences. The Welsh Strategic Equality Plan of 2012 also includes an objective oriented at the identification of gender pay gaps. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the concrete measures and actions carried out in the framework of the PSED to implement the principle of the Convention. Please provide information on the impact of these measures on the existing gender pay gap in the public sector.

Private sector. The Committee notes that instead of adopting a mandatory approach through section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 (which provides the enactment of regulations to require employers to publish information relating to the pay of employees for the purpose of showing differences in the pay of male and female employees), the Government has opted for a voluntary mechanism to enhance pay transparency: the “Think, Act, Report” a voluntary, business-led initiative which encourages voluntary gender equality reporting to private sector organizations, particularly those with 150 or more employees. The Committee notes that some enterprises have already signed up to this initiative which covers more than 2 million employees. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the measures taken and activities carried out in the framework of the “Think, Act, Report” and their concrete impact on tackling the gender pay gap in the private sector. Please also provide information on the specific measures adopted to enhance transparency in the payment of salaries as well as on any other measures adopted in the private sector to identify and correct pay gaps.

Article 3. Pay audits. The Committee notes the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA), section 98 of which inserts a new section 139A into the Equality Act 2010 giving employment tribunals the power to order that an employer undertake an equal pay audit in any case where the tribunal finds that there has been an equal pay breach. Section 139A also provides that further provisions can be made by regulations concerning the content of an audit, the powers and duties of a tribunal for deciding whether its order has been complied with as well as any circumstances in which an audit may be required to be published or may be disclosed to any person. The Committee notes the enactment of the Equality Act 2010 (Equal Pay Audits) Regulations 2014 on 1 October 2014. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the impact of section 139A of the Equality Act 2010 on the number of equal pay audits carried out, the incidence of these pay audits in gender pay adjustments and any obstacles encountered.

Article 4. Cooperation with social partners. The Committee notes that the Welsh Government with the Wales Trades Union Congress have placed trade union equality representatives (TUER) across the public sector to ensure that organizations meet their statutory equality obligations and work towards creating the fairest and most diverse public sector workforce. The representatives also encourage employers to make equality and diversity part of mainstream collective bargaining. In February 2014, the total number of public sector equality representatives across seven trade unions stood at 346. An All Wales Trade Union Equality Representative Network Officer was appointed in May 2013 for a two year period funded by the Welsh Government. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on similar cooperation experiences with social partners as well as on any collective bargaining processes or collective agreements concluded taking into account equal pay issues and promoting the principle of equal remuneration between men and women for work or equal value.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2015.]