Public and Commercial Services Union

Across DfT we have men and women doing similar work or work graded the same or work that has been rated equivalent. Yet these men and women are paid different rates of pay.

Our aim is to ensure that the principle of equal pay for work of equal value is complied with within the department.

One way of ensuring this is through the use of equal pay law. Like most legal matters this law is complicated so to aid understanding we have produced an equal pay rough guide.

The union has lodged equal pay cases in DVLA on behalf of women EOs. They are taking claims against male Driving Examiners (DEs) and Senior Driving Examiners (SDEs) in DSA.

Surprisingly instead of arguing that that the unequal pay between the EOs and DEs is fair and can be justified the government has taken another tack. They claimed that legally a women in one DfT agency could not take a case against a man in another DfT agency. To buttress this defence they argued that the chief executives of the agencies have complete autonomy as regards agency operational matters and agency pay and that Ministers cannot interfere with this autonomy.

The problem with this defence is that it is not true. There is a wealth of information before the Tribunal handling the equal pay case showing that Ministers do have control over the agencies. Of course the current pay freeze shows that the “Chiefs” are not in charge of pay.

In a tribunal hearing in 2010 we won the legal point that a women in DVLA could take a case against a man in DSA.

Further DfT now agree that women EOs in DVLA do work of equal value with male Driving Examiners; though they deny that they do work of equal value to male SDEs.

The tribunal hearing to determine whether doing work of equal value with DEs means that the women should be paid the same as male DEs has now finished. We are now waiting for the outcome. Of course if we win that point then male EOs in DVLA will have to have their pay equalised to that of the women EOs.
 

More details concerning the case appear on the news section of this website.

A detailed guide to equal pay can be found in the 'helpful guides' section of the DfT website.