Scottish Parliament - Evidence (1)
Background
1) The right to equal pay is enshrined in the Equal Pay Act 1970, but almost 40 years later the pay gap between traditional male and female jobs is still huge (22% on average) - even in the public sector where trade union organisation is relatively strong. Clearly, something is badly wrong and has been for many years.
2) During the 1970’s and 80’s some progress was made in tackling the problem. In 1987/88 a new job evaluation (JE) scheme was introduced in local government which aimed to give many female dominated jobs a better deal.
3) The scheme was restricted to manual workers only, but many predominantly female jobs benefited – for the first time a Home Carer or Cook, for example, was placed on a higher basic grade than a Refuse Collector – MW 5 compared to MW 2 for the male job.
4) But the manual workers JE scheme did not address the issue of hidden bonuses, paid only to male jobs and often worth 50% or more on top of their basic pay. So, while it looked as if the Home Carer had caught up with the male workers’ pay, this was just an illusion.
5) So, the fight carried on into the 1990’s. The unions adopted an agreed strategy that set out to end the old divide between ‘blue’ and ‘white’ workers by delivering a new and common set of conditions of service for all council workers – this became known as Single Status.
6) The strategic goal of the trade unions (Single Status) was shared, at the time, by the local government employers – not least because the trade unions had a Plan B. The trade unions made it clear to the employers that litigation in the Employment Tribunals was a viable option, if the collective bargaining machinery failed to deliver the intended outcome.
7) For their part, councils accepted that thousands of female workers had valid equal pay claims, as a result of the long standing practice of paying hidden bonuses, but only to traditional male jobs. The employers conceded they had no real defence to such claims, which is evidenced by their rush to make settlement offers (albeit poor offers) in 2005/06.
8) Equal pay was always at the heart of the Single Status agenda and, of course, everyone agreed with aim of achieving equal pay, but years of difficult and detailed negotiations followed before a new national UK agreement was finally reached in 1997.
9) Scotland modified and, arguably, strengthened the original UK agreement with its own Single Status (Red Book) Agreement in 1999. The Red Book took Scotland out of the UK negotiating machinery and included a clear timetable for implementing the new national agreement plus a nationally recommended job evaluation (JE) scheme, which was regarded as the key to resolving the long-standing gender inequalities in pay.
1) The right to equal pay is enshrined in the Equal Pay Act 1970, but almost 40 years later the pay gap between traditional male and female jobs is still huge (22% on average) - even in the public sector where trade union organisation is relatively strong. Clearly, something is badly wrong and has been for many years.
2) During the 1970’s and 80’s some progress was made in tackling the problem. In 1987/88 a new job evaluation (JE) scheme was introduced in local government which aimed to give many female dominated jobs a better deal.
3) The scheme was restricted to manual workers only, but many predominantly female jobs benefited – for the first time a Home Carer or Cook, for example, was placed on a higher basic grade than a Refuse Collector – MW 5 compared to MW 2 for the male job.
4) But the manual workers JE scheme did not address the issue of hidden bonuses, paid only to male jobs and often worth 50% or more on top of their basic pay. So, while it looked as if the Home Carer had caught up with the male workers’ pay, this was just an illusion.
5) So, the fight carried on into the 1990’s. The unions adopted an agreed strategy that set out to end the old divide between ‘blue’ and ‘white’ workers by delivering a new and common set of conditions of service for all council workers – this became known as Single Status.
6) The strategic goal of the trade unions (Single Status) was shared, at the time, by the local government employers – not least because the trade unions had a Plan B. The trade unions made it clear to the employers that litigation in the Employment Tribunals was a viable option, if the collective bargaining machinery failed to deliver the intended outcome.
7) For their part, councils accepted that thousands of female workers had valid equal pay claims, as a result of the long standing practice of paying hidden bonuses, but only to traditional male jobs. The employers conceded they had no real defence to such claims, which is evidenced by their rush to make settlement offers (albeit poor offers) in 2005/06.
8) Equal pay was always at the heart of the Single Status agenda and, of course, everyone agreed with aim of achieving equal pay, but years of difficult and detailed negotiations followed before a new national UK agreement was finally reached in 1997.
9) Scotland modified and, arguably, strengthened the original UK agreement with its own Single Status (Red Book) Agreement in 1999. The Red Book took Scotland out of the UK negotiating machinery and included a clear timetable for implementing the new national agreement plus a nationally recommended job evaluation (JE) scheme, which was regarded as the key to resolving the long-standing gender inequalities in pay.
Part 2 to follow
