Equal Pay

[HairyBallTheorem]

Guardian article on taking on Sainsburys and Asda for equal pay.

As someone who had to threaten to take my then employer to court (eventually settled through ACAS, in my favour), this is close to my heart.

I'm not allowed to discuss the details of my case (gagging clause) but it was the result of "cock up" rather than "conspiracy" - long pay scales and long time to reach "target rate for the job" meaning that women's pay slowly but inexorably drifted away from men's pay after a couple of periods of maternity leave and a nominal "okay at your job" mark for performance.

50 years after the law was changed to give women equal pay, and we still have to find fight for it.

These companies should be treated as if they are also guilty of tax evasion as well since they've also scammed the State out of National Insurance and income tax.

Walmart are behaving like total bastards, appealing everything, delaying, etc etc.

It's also wrong that you can't get legal aid for equal pay claims. So if you're not well paid, you're very much less likely to be able to bring a case. It's a deliberate built in hurdle. Given the historical treatment of women in work there should be a dedicated fund available for women fighting equal pay or discrimination cases.

I didn't know they'd cancelled legal aid for these cases, thats despicable. Isn't there also a fee to pay if you use a tribunal?

Not only that, my understanding is that the law has recently changed so you can no longer bring "class action" cases (as mine was, and as the Sainsburys and Asda cases are - cases already in progress will not be affected). So, suppose you're in a union who're paying the legal costs. You'll no longer be able to bring one case on behalf of 50 women, you'll have to fight 50 separate cases - costing far, far more in legal fees and admin support, and obscuring the systematic nature of the inequality.

gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Viewing/search-results