EQUAL PAY
Equal pay crisis needs a new solution
Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has warned that the 40 year-old Equal Pay Act has “reached its sell-by date” and should be scrapped in favour of modern legislation to get women a fair deal quickly.
Unless there is radical change, the tribunal system may come crashing down, said Phillips. “Hundreds of thousands of women trying to get justice may be made to wait for an intolerably long time unless there is a fundamental change in approach.”
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There are currently an estimated 50,000 equal pay cases being brought by underpaid local council workers. The Commission reckons the numbers will rise threefold to 150,000 this year, causing the already painfully slow employment tribunal system to seize up “like a blocked drain”.
Radical changes to law
To provide a long-term solution, the Commission has called for a radical change to the law. It proposes the introduction of representative actions, where hundreds of cases could be heard at the same time. This would unclog the tribunal system and could reduce the number of cases by more than 90%.
Phillips said that whenever possible, the hundreds of thousands of equal pay cases needed to be pulled out of the lengthy legal process and solved by negotiated agreements.
“These women deserve justice now, not justice in another decade. They are the care workers who look after your mum, the dinner ladies who look after your children. Every single one of us would suffer if they didn’t put in the hours.
There’s no point in us throwing petrol on this legal forest fire by supporting even more individual cases going through the tribunal system. Instead, we need to come up with some radical solutions.”
Want to know more?
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006, which took over the responsibilities of the Commission for Racial Equality, Disability Rights Commission and Equal Opportunities Commission.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is the “independent advocate for equality and human rights in Britain”. It enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender status, and encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act. It also gives advice and guidance to businesses, the voluntary and public sectors, and to individuals.
To find out more visit www.equalityhumanrights.com.