An employment appeal tribunal has backed an equal pay claim by female workers at a Merseyside hospital, which could pave the way for further such challenges. The original case, supported by the union Unison, took St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to a tribunal for paying women a lower wage at weekends than men.The women, working as healthcare assistants, domestic supervisors and receptionists, were paid time-and-one-third for working on a Saturday, and time-and-two-thirds for working on Sundays and bank holidays. But the men who were doing comparable roles received a higher pay rate of time-and-a-half for Saturdays and double time for Sundays and bank holidays. The trust argued that unsocial hours payments were part of their staff's normal working week, and that payments for these hours could not be separated from basic pay. In December 2009, a Newcastle tribunal found in favour of the trust.
But now a London appeal tribunal has found that women working at St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust should be entitled to the same level of unsocial hours pay as men. This decision means women at the trust and at other hospitals could challenge pay discrimination on the same grounds. The appeal judge agreed with the female employees that unsocial hours payments are a separate term of the employment contract, and can be directly compared.
Audrey Williams, head of discrimination law at Eversheds, said: “In essence, this case confirms previous cases including a previous Swedish midwives' case for equal pay mentioned in the judgment. “The debate is often around trying to identify and break down the different components in a reward package, to find the discrete elements.
“When employers are reviewing their pay arrangements – undertaking an equal pay audit for example – they need to do so by reference to each element of reward, benefits, individual pay provision, pay term and pay component in the contract; breaking it down and analysing it for any gender pay distinction in a term-by-term comparison.”
APA backs all moves made towards equality of pay for both sexes and will continue to lobby for this in all cases.
Gareth, APA
Source: PM Online 10/08/2010
4 comments:
Yeah, a win for the Home Team. That must make the score Women 1 Men 150,000,371.
A long way to go yet.
Any moe towards equal pay is a definite move in the right direction. This should be one of APA's core ambitions.
I agree with Becky and Jacki. Just out of interest is there equality between the pay of male and female PA's?
Hi all,
Any inequality is unacceptable, so APA does lobby hard to convince Government that it must pay more than lip-service to this debate. It is one thing creating a law and another to have the will to enforce it.
In answer to Tracy's point. There is little real evidence as the male population of PAs is so low. However, the latest salary survey did show that male PAs tend to be business gradulates and were recruited for their long term potential in other roles and 'therefore' were paid more on entry. Does that infer that female PAs with Degrees have lesser potential? Only time will tell.
The prejudice still seems to really be around longevity of employment and the belief that males will stay, females will have babies and this damages the will to pay high salaries.
I would welcome your thoughts.
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