03 September 2004
The government must take the lead on tackling equal pay as unions begin to put it at the centre of their bargaining agendas, the Trades Union Congress has warned.
In an interview with Public Finance, Frances O'Grady, deputy general secretary of the TUC, said women workers in the public sector were becoming impatient for change. She warned that as trade union membership moved to an almost 50:50 split between male and female workers, the unions would take a 'broader look at what's happening to women'.
'As part-time women are more likely to be union members than full-time men, there will be a change in the bargaining and policy agenda. It's already emerging as centre stage of the congress agenda,' she said.
Both Unison and the GMB are calling for a 'new deal for women' at the TUC conference in Brighton on September 13–16. In motions likely to be passed overwhelmingly by the conference, the unions demand mandatory equal pay audits, a fair employment clause in all public contracts, and an increase in training and development opportunities.
The unions are strongly supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission, which has warned that the average 18% pay gap between men and women needs more than the current legislation to correct the imbalance.
'We've put equal pay centre stage in our work and a lot of unions have in theirs. The combination of those two have coincided to make it a very visible issue,' EOC deputy chair Jenny Watson told PF.
Watson said it was 'staggering' that pay gaps in the public sector still existed. She said that as a 'significant employer', the government must also use its financial leverage to promote equal pay.
'The government has a real role to play in terms of procurement and the extent it can influence the practices of the private sector,' she said. 'It spends £42bn a year on procurement, and organisations should be pressured into guaranteeing staff equal pay. It is taxpayers' money they are spending.'
Watson said the EOC is due to publish a study on part-time workers in the autumn. Figures show that the majority of part-time positions in the public sector are occupied by women and are low paid.
In local government, 982,800 out of the total 2.2 million workforce are female part-time workers. The EOC study will examine why the 40% pay gap between part-time workers and full-time men hasn't improved in 30 years.
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