News on 12 December 2000
The Government is to speed up equal pay hearings according
to employment minister Tessa Jowell, who yesterday announced a consultation
paper to tackle the 18% gender pay gap.
At the Women's National Commission Conference in London, Jowell said:
“If we are to make real progress on pay equality, we must streamline
the system for dealing with equal pay claims.”
The consultation paper 'Towards Equal Pay for Women’ puts forward
proposals to cut the delays, which Jowell says make it harder for women
to achieve pay parity and are bad for business and claimants.
“The gender pay gap has halved from 37% when the Equal Pay Act was
brought in thirty years ago to 18% now, but it is still too high. Even
without any breaks for children, a mid-skilled woman will still earns
£240,000 less than a man over her working life. Last year nearly
2,500 equal pay complaints were made to employment tribunals and these
cases can be very slow,” added Jowell.
Competitiveness minister Alan Johnson said: "Tribunals follow special
procedures in equal pay cases, and we are keen to streamline these to
provide an efficient and fair service for users, and lighten the burden
these cases impose on the tribunals themselves. Equal Pay Tribunal cases
are among the slowest and most complex going through the Tribunal system.
I am working
closely with DfEE Ministers to help improve the process."
Stephen Alambritis, head of parliamentary affairs at the federation of
small businesses, continued: "Equal pay claims can and should be
resolved as speedily as possible in the best interests of both employers
and claimants. Delays only drag out any unfairness at play, and the proposals
are to be welcomed."
The CBI gave a mixed reaction and although the deputy director-general
John Cridland thought it was good news to streamline tribunal proceedings,
he said: “The proposal to remove the no-reasonable-grounds defence
will worry business because it may make it more difficult to dismiss weak
claims. It is a move in the opposite direction to recent tribunal reforms,
which aim to free employer from defending no-hope cases.“
