Public and Commercial Services Union

Equal pay for equal work is central to rewarding people fairly. Over the last two years some progress has been made in conducting equal pay reviews in Government organisations.

The union's aim is to see equality auditing integrated into the main pay negotiating process so that equalities are considered at each step.

Equal Pay reviews are essentially based on the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act and therefore are focussed on gender pay differences.

Many organisations have broadened their reviews to include ethnicity and disability, which is the approach PCS wishes to encourage.

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 obliges public sector employers to adopt an equality scheme, which should encourage the inclusion of ethnicity in pay reviews.

The purpose of an equal pay review is to compare the pay of men and women doing equal work (which will usually be work rated as equivalent by a job evaluation scheme), to identify any gender pay gaps and to eliminate gaps that cannot be explained on grounds other than sex.

The same principles apply to tackling differences based on ethnicity and disability.

The Equal Opportunities Commission describes two types of discrimination. Direct discrimination occurs when the difference in pay or terms is directly related to sex. Indirect discrimination arises when the difference is due to a provision, criterion or practice which:

• Applies to both men and women but
• Adversely affects a considerably larger proportion of women than men, and
• Is not objectively justified irrespective of the sex of the jobholders.

As the Equal Opportunities Commission points out,

"an equal pay review is concerned with an important, but narrow, aspect of sex discrimination in employment - unequal pay for equal work. It does not directly address other aspects of inequality, such as the glass ceiling, but such aspects - which may well contribute to the gender pay gap- may be highlighted by the review".

The equal pay reviews carried out in the Civil Service have highlighted these wider issues, so it is important that pay negotiators are alert to implications both on legal responsibilities and wider organisational impacts. PCS's aim is to achieve equal pay because it is the fair way to reward people for the work they do, not just because it is a legal obligation.