Game, set and match!
As this year's Wimbledon tennis championship gets underway, we can all celebrate another victory on equal pay.
For the first time in its history, men and women tennis players at Wimbledon will receive the same prize money - no ifs, buts or maybes - women are no longer second class citizens.
Hip. hip, hooray!
So, we should all take our hats off to the old buffers and duffers that run the All England Tennis Club - because they've achieved equal pay more quickly than many other organisations that claim to be leading experts in the field.
Take the trade unions and many of the council employers - they are fond of wearing their political hearts on their sleeves - they swear blind they are equal opportunity organisations - yet for years and years they have failed to live up to this star billing.
National equal pay agreements have been signed amidst great publicity and fanfare - only to be completely ignored by both the employers and trade unions once the dust had settled.
Later still, many local agreements have been reached - often on the back of some reorganisation -yet despite the public commitment to equal pay - many of theses ended up treating women workers less favourably than men. See the recent posts regarding Falkirk and West Lothian Councils.
So, the moral of the story is to take what these self-proclaimed champions of equal pay say with a big pinch of salt. Because actions speak much louder than words - and talk is cheap!
Just as well the women tennis players at Wimbledon didn't have to rely on Scotland's councils and the trade unions to deliver a result.
For the first time in its history, men and women tennis players at Wimbledon will receive the same prize money - no ifs, buts or maybes - women are no longer second class citizens.
Hip. hip, hooray!
So, we should all take our hats off to the old buffers and duffers that run the All England Tennis Club - because they've achieved equal pay more quickly than many other organisations that claim to be leading experts in the field.
Take the trade unions and many of the council employers - they are fond of wearing their political hearts on their sleeves - they swear blind they are equal opportunity organisations - yet for years and years they have failed to live up to this star billing.
National equal pay agreements have been signed amidst great publicity and fanfare - only to be completely ignored by both the employers and trade unions once the dust had settled.
Later still, many local agreements have been reached - often on the back of some reorganisation -yet despite the public commitment to equal pay - many of theses ended up treating women workers less favourably than men. See the recent posts regarding Falkirk and West Lothian Councils.
So, the moral of the story is to take what these self-proclaimed champions of equal pay say with a big pinch of salt. Because actions speak much louder than words - and talk is cheap!
Just as well the women tennis players at Wimbledon didn't have to rely on Scotland's councils and the trade unions to deliver a result.
