EXPERTS at a leading HR & Employment Law company are urging organisations to review their employment law policies and procedures in the light of more than 3,000 claims against cash-stricken Birmingham City Council.
The GMB Union is supporting claims against the Council for equal pay and has asked the government to intervene. It also has disputes against councils in Coventry, Westmorland, Cumberland, Glasgow, Dundee and Fife, according to the Guardian.
Precept – which has its headquarters in Derby – says that lessons can be learned from the alleged failings at Birmingham City Council, and warned that equal pay claims can be costly for organisations.
Their claims come as the United Nations marks International Equal Pay Day, celebrating success stories from trade unions around the world that have campaigned to tackle the gender pay gap.
Rob Tice, director and co-owner of Precept, who have been shortlisted for a Business Masters award, said: “Equal pay claims can be costly and time consuming to defend, and they can ultimately, in the worst case scenarios, result in backpay being awarded for up to six years.
“It is a legal requirement (under Chapter 3 of the Equality Act 2010) that men and women must get equal pay for doing equal work. We’re not talking about gender pay gap reporting here, which only applies to employers with more than 250 staff – the duty to ensure you’re giving equal pay for equal work applies to all employers.”
The law surrounding equal pay can be complex, but as usual Precept can break through the legal jargon. Equal work means like work – where the work is broadly similar in nature and any differences are not of practical importance – work rated as equivalent (that requires an assessment of the work, usually using a job evaluation scheme) and work of equal value, which is where work is not similar but is of equal value. The value of the work will be assessed by the reference to demands, responsibility, skill, effort and decision making.
But, adds Rob, there can be other, legitimate reasons why women are paid less.
“There are some circumstances where equal work doesn’t always require equal pay,” he said, “where there is reason unrelated to gender as to why there is a difference in pay, employers might have a defence to equal pay claims.
“This is commonly referred to as the “material factor defence”. Examples of “material factors” which might justify a difference in pay might include geographical factors, level of seniority or length of service.
“Employees can bring claims for breach of the equal pay provisions and, to do so, there needs to be an actual comparator of the opposite gender. This can be an existing or previous employee, as long as they are – or were – working in the same employment.
“There can be more than one comparator as well, which increases the chances of a successful claim.”
Rob adds that it goes without saying that employers should be giving equal pay for equal work – and, if you’re unsure about whether you’re already doing that, an audit is probably a good starting point.
“An audit can help assess whether you’re paying people properly or whether you’re justified in paying people at different levels,” said Rob.
“If not, you’re going to have to look at being proactive and taking steps to address pay imbalances fairly quickly.”
If you have any equal pay queries, the team at Precept would be glad to help. They also run regular online training sessions, that are informative and engaging. Their next session is their free online mock disciplinary event for HR professionals on October 11. For details, visit precepthr.com/news/events/
