Equal pay victory for women

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have just sent us their month email newsletter with this press release report.

It is entitled "Women in some jobs who have time off to raise children get pay equality boost after landmark ruling"

Commission welcomes equal pay victory for women at work

Women in some jobs who have time off to raise children received a significant boost today after a landmark case in the Court of Appeal in which the Equality and Human Rights Commission intervened.

Mrs Christine Wilson, an Inspector with the Health and Safety Executive, brought the case against her employer, claiming that its pay agreement with employees linking pay to length of service for up to ten years was unfair.

The Health and Safety Executive’s agreement with its employees meant that three male colleagues on the same level as Mrs Wilson were paid more than her for doing equivalent work.

The Commission argued that linking pay to length of service often disadvantages women who take time out of the workforce to raise children and so do not have the same continuous length of service as men.

The Court agreed with the Commission’s submissions. It found that although employers to not generally have to justify schemes linking length of service to pay, they will have to if there is evidence that this is having a disproportionate impact on women.

Susie Uppal, Director of Legal Enforcement at the Commission, said: 'Women should not be disadvantaged in the workforce because of they take time out for maternity leave or to meet caring responsibilities. Linking pay to length of service often does them a disservice. Direct discrimination, long hours, and a lack of flexible working options are some of the biggest barriers to achieving gender equality in the workplace.'

Research shows that the gender pay gap is narrower in the public sector than in the private sector, (a full-time gap of 13.8 per cent compared with 21.7 per cent) and that far more public sector employers are undertaking pay audits as one way of addressing the issue (43 per cent compared to 23 per cent).

The Commission believes that developing ways for employers to measure and report on their gender pay gap will be a crucial step towards reducing pay inequity by providing greater transparency. It is holding a consultation on how to develop a consistent way to measure the gender pay difference within organisations.

Gender pay gap reporting is intended to be voluntary, but could be made mandatory using a reserve power in the Equality Bill. A future Secretary of State could chose to use that power if progress on closing the pay gap has not been made by 2013.

Source: The Equality and Human Rights Commission 20th October 2009

Who are The Equality and Human Rights Commission?

The Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006, which took over the responsibilities of Commission for Racial Equality, Disability Rights Commission and Equal Opportunities Commission. It is the independent advocate for equality and human rights in Britain. It aims to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people, and promote and protect human rights. The Commission 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.

Interventions

The UK Parliament has recognised the value of the Commission’s expertise, imposing on it the power to intervene in certain legal proceedings by virtue of section 30 of the Equality Act 2006. The Commission takes a strategic approach when deciding to intervene. It will generally intervene in cases where it can use its expertise to clarify or challenge an important element of the law. The cases generally involve serious matters of public policy or general public concern. The outcome of these cases often has a wide impact as they set precedents to be followed by the lower courts.

Take a look at the jml Training website section Promoting Equal Opportunities in Service Provision

Coaching Development Coach Training

Participants' Feedback - London Spring 2009

Gráinne Suter of jml Training and Consultancy - Commented


How would you sum up your experience of the whole programme?

Very professionally organised, both prior to and during the course. A valuable and rich learning experience that met all the objectives. Range of learning styles/ material/ methods.

What is your appraisal/evaluation of the trainers?

Very able. Brought different perfections and a breath of experience that facilitated learning. Supportive, encouraging and enabling – trained in a coaching way.

Source: Coaching Development

Government 'faces uphill struggle' to promote effective action on the gender pay gap

The CIPD The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Europe's largest HR and development professional body with over 135,000 members, issued a press release on the 12th November 2009 entitled "Government 'faces uphill struggle' to promote effective action on the gender pay gap, despite today's ASHE results"

With the latest Office for National Statistics showing that the equal pay gap across all measures has narrowed, the CIPD today reports survey evidence of employer practice and attitudes to measuring the gender pay gap in the workplace. The figures show that the equal pay gap between men and women has improved from 12.6% to 12.2% for full-time work, while the equal pay gap between men and women has also narrowed from -3.7% to -2.0% for part-time work.

The CIPD argues that the results strengthen the case for voluntary equal pay reporting given the complexity of the problem, as illustrated by the fact that hourly earnings for women are higher than men's for part-time work.

The autumn 2009 CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey, conducted by IPSOS Mori, finds that fewer than 1 in 5 (18%) private sector employers measure their gender pay gap, the vast majority, and especially smaller employers, considering this unnecessary for their business. In the public sector, where equal pay monitoring is a statutory requirement, 2 in 5 (43%) employers only complete audits to tick the necessary bureaucratic box rather than as part of an underlying effort to advance gender equality.

The survey findings are likely to disappoint the government which has included provisions in its Equality Bill to require private and third sector organisations with more than 250 employees to report on gender pay gaps if too few are doing so voluntarily by 2013.

Dianah Worman, CIPD Diversity Adviser says: "Judging by these survey findings the government faces an uphill struggle in its efforts to change employer attitudes to closing the gender pay gap, which the latest ONS figures will undoubtedly show still remains far too wide.

The bulk of private sector employers appear complacent about the gap - especially smaller employers who won't in any case be affected by the reporting provisions of the Equality Bill - while many public sector employers seem more concerned about complying with their statutory reporting duty than driving genuine gender equality in the workplace. The findings overall suggest that compulsory pay audits are at best a blunt instrument for promoting effective action on closing the gender pay gap and highlight the need for government to instead focus on helping employers in all sectors understand the business benefits of tackling unfair treatment on pay."

Employers that do measure their pay gap report that it provides useful insights and benchmarking data (60%) and helps inform pay reviews before they take place (43%). However, the survey finds that the average cost of conducting a gender pay audit is more than £5,000 - fifty times higher than government estimates.

Ingrid Waterfield, KPMG Head of Reward says: "We would encourage all employers to investigate their pay structures from the perspective of fairness and equality whether or not legislation is introduced to this effect. Equal pay audits can help to tangibly measure the achievement of fairness, and we believe that a fair approach to reward and recognition has a positive impact on employee engagement. Leading businesses examine their pay gaps not because of Government, but because they understand the reputational and legal damage in not getting it right."

The Equality Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, will introduce provisions to enforce gender pay reporting on private and third sector organisations of more than 250 employees. The Government says it will not make reporting compulsory until 2013 if voluntary progress is deemed to be insufficient.

The gender pay gap as measured by median hourly pay of full-time employees, excluding overtime, was 12.8% in April 2008. The latest figure, for April 2009, will be published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday 12 November alongside other results from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

The cost of reporting on the gender pay gap was estimated to be £5,105 in the CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook. This is higher than the Government's estimation.

Source CIPD

Equality in the workplace: how is the UK doing?

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a new report into how a range of UK organisations have established equality policies encouraging employees from diverse backgrounds to participate fully in the workplace.

The report looks at eight employers – including BT, Asda, the British Library and North Wales Police – to see what policies and practices they have adopted to encourage lesbian, gay, bisexual and older employees and those with differing religions or beliefs to take up recruitment, promotion or advancement opportunities in the workplace. All eight organisations adopted a variety of equality programmes aimed at making employees feel accepted and preventing discrimination based on age, sexual orientation and religion or belief.

The report will be used by the Commission to develop guidance for employers on implementing effective equality policies.

Andrea Murray, Acting Group Director Strategy from the Commission, said: 'This research provides us with an understanding of how effectively implemented equality policies in the workplace can lead to employees from diverse backgrounds feeling confident and able to fully participate in the organisation. We know that workplace integration for employees is important to allow them to progress in their careers. This report will be used to develop guidance to assist employers in positively engaging with staff from diverse backgrounds.'


Download their report: Integration in the workplace (pdf),

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Increase in number of women in work helps curb rise in unemployment

Following the CIPD’s press release “Men not at work - Male employment rate heads toward record low in UK” that was posted on the jml Training blog on the 14th October 09, The CIPD have issued the following press release on the 14th October

Figures published earlier today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a smaller than expected rise in unemployment, with the headline survey based measure of joblessness remaining below 2.5 million in the three months ending in August.John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), says that this is due to a quarterly increase in part-time employment for women which, although good news, further highlights the degree to which men are being much harder hit than women by the recession, as demonstrated by CIPD analysis earlier this week.

Dr Philpott comments: "The latest official jobless figures show that conditions in the UK labour market continue to weaken, but at a slower pace than earlier in the year. This is consistent with independent employer survey evidence, including the CIPD's, and suggests that the jobless total is now crawling rather than rushing toward a peak of around 3 million in 2010.

"The relative improvement in the labour market is due to a rise in part-time and temporary jobs, with employers who need to recruit remaining wary of hiring full-time staff given uncertainty over the strength of economic recovery. Women are the main beneficiaries of a labour market where part-time work is rising while full-time jobs continue to be cut. This explains why the CIPD expects the rate of male unemployment to rise well above 10% in 2010, with the proportion of men in work set to fall to a record low."The shift from full-time jobs for men to part-time jobs for women has also resulted in a further sharp quarterly fall in the total number of hours being worked in the economy. This is a better indicator than headline employment and unemployment of the underlying toll the recession is continuing to take on the labour market. When combined with figures also released today showing a further slowdown in growth in average earnings - especially in the private sector - the fall in hours suggests that working people who manage to stay in work are nonetheless experiencing a big squeeze on their earned income."

Source: CIPD

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Men not at work - Male employment rate heads toward record low in UK

That is the theme of a press release that has today been issued by the CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Apparently 1 in 10 UK men will be unemployed by 2010 as male employment rate heads toward record low. The latest official UK unemployment figures due to be released tomorrow, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) today highlights the impact of the recession on jobs for men and warns that, with a 'jobs light' recovery on the cards, the proportion of men in work is set to fall to a record low.The CIPD's analysis of official statistics, 'Men not at work', finds that:

The male unemployment rate currently stands at 9 per cent (higher than the female unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent). The number of men unemployed has increased by almost 50 per cent during the recession, the number of women unemployed by 33.4 per cent, with unemployment rates rising by 3.0 percentage points and 1.6 percentage points respectively. The deterioration in the labour market position of men has been felt particularly acutely by young men and black men.

At present 1 in 5 18-24 year old men are unemployed and almost 1 in 5 black men are unemployed, more than double the unemployment rate for white British men. The rise in unemployment for black men during the recession has been greater than for white British men and men from other ethnic minority groups.By summer 2009 the employment rate of men of working age had fallen to 75.8 per cent.

Only two years in the post-World War II era (1993 and 1994) have registered a lower proportion of men in work. The low point was 75.0 per cent in the second quarter of 1993 just as the economy began to emerge from recession (the previous low point, following the 1980s recession. was 77.4 per cent in the second quarter of 1983).

The male unemployment rate is forecast to rise above 10 per cent by the start of 2010 before peaking at around 11 per cent (1.9 million). Although depressingly high, the peak in the male unemployment rate should be less than the 12.4 per cent and 12.8 per cent peaks following the 1980s and 1990s recessions respectively.

Dr John Philpott, CIPD's Chief Economist, made this comment: "A focus on the relatively hard impact of the recession on men should not detract from the absolute deterioration in the labour market situation facing both sexes. Indeed, it is likely that the relative position of women will itself deteriorate in the coming decade as real cuts in public expenditure have an adverse impact on public sector employment. However, it is important to highlight the current plight of men in the labour market, not least because once the impact of recession and a 'jobs-light' recovery is fully felt the proportion of UK men in work will probably have fallen to a record low."

Source: CIPD Press Release.

Ruling on the Default Retirement Age in the UK

The CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have issued a Press Release late on the 25th September entitled - "Heyday ruling damaging for business, says CIPD"

This is as a result of the The High Court upholding the law that allows UK employers to force workers to retire at the age of 65. In the UK, a worker can see their employment end at the age of 65 without any redundancy payment - even if they do not want to retire. The judge in the case said there was a compelling case for the compulsory retirement age to rise.

The CIPD says...
Responding to today's High Court ruling on the default retirement age, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is disappointed that the Court has upheld the British Law allowing employers to retire workers against their wishes when they turn 65. The CIPD has consistently called for the removal of the DRA for the pressing economic, social and business reasons.

CIPD Diversity Adviser, Dianah Worman says:

"The ECJ has missed a trick to resolve this issue once and for all. The government itself has admitted that the days of the DRA are numbered. It seems counter-intuitive to drag this decision out even further while thousands of older people will be forced out of work in an already difficult jobs market.

"As the HR body we do not buy the HR argument that businesses can't manage their workforce without the DRA. If you have poor performers in your organisation you should also have the performance management systems to deal with them. You wouldn't wait 25 years to remove a poor performing 40 year-old.

"Additionally, business should recognise that this ruling only states that companies can legally retire staff at 65 if they want to. Many organisations and several government departments have already done away with compulsory retirement ages because they recognise the value of retaining older workers and the CIPD encourages all businesses to follow suit.

"We will continue to push for the removal of the mandatory retirement age, both through the current Equality Bill and when the government conducts its own review next year."

CIPD research conducted earlier this year found that 1 in 5 employers planned to enforce the DRA more rigorously in order to reduce headcount*.

*Labour Market Outlook, Winter 2008/2009 . End of CIPD Release.

According to BBC News: Age Concern and Help the Aged, which challenged the rules, will not appeal because they are expecting this law to change.

Employers welcomed the ruling because as a result of the court's decision, it means that a string of compensation cases brought by people who did not want to retire is doomed to fail. The Government has announced it is bringing forward a review of the compulsory retirement age anyway, by a year to 2010. The charities believe that this will eventually lead to a change in the rules.

At present under the current law, a British employer can dismiss a member of staff without redundancy payments on that employee's 65th birthday, as long as they stick to the correct procedure. The charities believe this is in breach of the EU's Equal Treatment at Work Directive.

Developing a Learning Organisation - A Programme of Effective Interventions from jml Training & Consultancy

jml Training and Consultancy has designed this programme to provide managers with a practical understanding of how to develop a learning organisation and the skills and confidence to lead in a learning organisation.

What is a Learning Organisation?

A learning organisation is one that learns collectively and develops its ability to be adaptive and responsive to its external environment. The process involves individual, team and organisational learning and the results of learning are used to achieve better results.

The organisation supports continuous employee learning, critical thinking and risk taking with new ideas, learns from mistakes and from experience. It also disseminates new knowledge and information through the organisation to inform day to day activities.

The Learning Organisation may not necessarily invest significantly in formal education or training, but it does ensure that learning at work is captured as a value added resource.

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jml Training and Consultancy have launched three courses for the autumn

There has never been a better time to invest in your organisation's future than investing in training now.

That is the message we are sending out to employers this week with the launch of three training courses.

Effective Communication for Managers - A team's effectiveness has a direct influence on the success of an organisation. The team manager holds the key to the success of the team. Team managers with an effective communication approach and in possession of a high level of emotional intelligence can create and maintain cohesive and collaborative work place relationships.

Dealing with Difficult People - This programme is designed for all those who are managing staff, managing performance and delivering organisational change. It provides practical strategies and tools to help you confidently manage disagreement and confrontation in the workplace. It is beneficial for all levels of management but is most beneficial when delivered to managers on a similar level.

Developing the Team using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator - Developing a sense of team and getting the best from teams is an ongoing concern for managers. Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used psychometric instrument and was first pioneered as a tool to increase team effectiveness with health care teams in 1974. Since then it has been very successfully applied in a range of different environments.

To find out more take a look at our Press Release - Here