Equal Opportunity Commission chair's suggestions will cost discriminated-against women workers £10,000 plus each

What has been achieved to end 30+ years of discrimination when the current Equal Opportunities Commission chair recommends a policy to continue to deprive women of equal pay for a further three years?

Equalpaylawyer.co.uk has reacted quickly to suggestions from Jenny Watson the chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission that a moratorium should be introduced to stop equal pay claims.

Mark Woloshak from equalpaylawyer.co.uk said "The idea that a moratorium will improve women’s pay claims is wrong. It is disappointing that instead of insisting on full recompense for women who have faced discrimination, the EOC is suggesting that each woman in the UK should continue to suffer on average a further £10,000 deficit."

Data from the National Statistics office states that in 2006 the median annual income for women was £20,124. Taking the EOC’s figure of a 17% difference between men and women this equates to a £3421 difference per annum. Although the differential is reducing, the figure will be around £10,000 for every woman in the UK which would be lost during the moratorium so Ms Watson's suggestion of a moratorium for three years is effectively a further discriminatory practice.

Mr Woloshak added "This government and governments before it have had over 30 years to sort this out. Why should the debt owed to women continually be deferred? Proposals even in respect of Public Sector workers were agreed over 10 years ago and in many cases have still not been implemented. If the EOC are serious about resolving the pay gap they should be pressing for equality now, not in three year's time.

"The adverse impact of a three year moratorium is further compounded by the six year limitation rule. As each day goes by the loss which occurred 6 years ago cannot be reclaimed. If a straight moratorium on claims were implemented tomorrow for three years not only would women lose the £10,263 but they would also lose a further 3 years in lapsed claims. The total average cost to women would be £20,256, add interest to this figure and it becomes worse.

"If Ms Watson actually means that after the moratorium back claims for this £20,256 should still be allowed then surely she is only proposing to store up more of a problem. If she believes women should lose this money for the good of society then it is a strange Equal Opportunity policy."

Mr Woloshak's view is that the only way to deal with the issue is to entice employers to guarantee equal pay by only allowing equal pay companies to obtioan public sector contracts

"It is only when they are forced to face the issue that they will respond, perpetual deferment on the grounds that we cannot afford the problem is no way to run a modern economy, but is nevertheless exactly how the government has responded to the Equal Pay debate in both the public and private sector.

"It would appear that if the employers, the government and now the equal opportunities commission cannot resolve the problem then the women themselves will have to. Furthermore, if the issue gets discussed because of claims clogging up the tribunal system then at least the sisters are doing it for themselves."

Ms Watson has added some useful ideas to the debate: A compulsory equality assessment for any company which is found to have discriminated would both alleviate the strain on tribunals and probably speed up the time it will take to eliminate the differential.

Equalpaylawyer.co.uk has launched a petition on the 10 Downing Street website to press the government to act to resolve the problem: "We would like to see an accreditation scheme set up by the EOC offering free workplace assesments. Any company who is accredited by the EOC and maintains the accreditation through regular inspection should then be entitled to tax breaks under the PAYE system. There are several areas where firms could be encouraged to improve their pay structures.

"Most companies recognise the equal contribution that women make. Accredited firms will attract the best staff. An Equal Pay Mark similar to IS08001 will rapidly become one of pride and quality in the workforce, rather than shame and fear of their bosses.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285

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