Equal Pay Grievance

[NotGivingUpToday]

I'm currently raising an equal pay grievance with my employer, going back 2 years.

I'd really appreciate some advice on:

1. How can I push for information supporting my case?
2. How to make sure I'm protected from retribution?
3. At what point should I get a lawyer? (and how much will it cost?)

We're currently still in the 'informal grievance' stage, although I think I may progress to 'formal grievance' on Monday

1. HR are currently declining to give me information about how grades/pay are calculated and my comparators compensation. I think I'm entitled to that information under the Equal Pay Act so long as it doesn't impinge on other people's privacy rights. My comparators are happy to share the information but worried about breaching their own confidentiality obligations with the company. I've asked HR in writing to confirm to my comparators that they aren't bound by confidentiality but they haven't. What's my next move?

1. While in practice it is a separate role, it doesn't exist officially in our HR/performance process. I think this has left me very vulnerable. On Friday, someone tried to redefine my role (which I was able to stop). Whilst the person who did it shouldn't know about my Equal Pay grievance, the timing is suspicious. I'm documenting everything with emails to the people involved. Is there anything else I can do to protect myself? Does the protection in the Equal Pay Act already apply at this stage, or do I need to move to Formal Grievance or Acas stage for that to apply?

1. I'd prefer to sort this with my employer as non-acrimoniously as possible. I do want to keep working there. I naively thought that this was such an open-shut case that as soon as they were aware of it, they would fix it. However, I'm not willing to let it slide and will take it as far as I need to. Am I at the point where I should get legal advice? And how much is it likely to cost?

Thanks very much for any help.

To clarify timelines:

• the grievance is to cover the last 2 years
• I tried to address it with multiple managers over the last 8 months
• I raised it to HR in January
• But I only framed it as an Equal Pay issue 2 weeks ago

a couple of questions:

• do you do exactly the same role
• do you have the same or comparable qualifications?
• do you work the same hours

I’ve never had to deal with it myself. But a colleague has thrown it out there that men and women should be paid the same. She’s comparing herself to a male colleague who has multiple professional qualifications where she has none and he does a slightly different role. He also has more experience than her. So my employer is leaning towards no, because they’re not equal.

The Equal Pay Act was replaced by the 2010 Equality Act. One thing in that is they can't prevent staff asking colleagues about pay if it's to check for equality, but that doesn’t mean they won't try and make out you're wrong to do it for other reasons.

Google the Equal Pay Portal - there's useful info there, with links to the relevant bits of ACAS etc.

I am talking to my union about equal pay this week. My role is exactly comparable to my male comparators, in that we can cover each other's work. Yours might be trickier because it's a separate role. You say it's not defined in the system - I would write down your definition, i.e. record all the duties you're expected to perform. Whoever your comparators are, look at anything which could be differentiating factors - qualifications, length of experience, hours worked, doing on-call or overtime, anything else. Assume that if there's anything they could possibly use, they will, so you must be ready to show why it's not a factor. It will be more of a challenge if your role is not exactly the same, but you can show how the work is comparable.

Also, while this is about equal pay with colleagues, so it doesn't matter if you're paid below, at, or above market rate, as long as you are all paid below, at, or above market rate together, it's still useful to know what your market value is.

And get a lawyer now, to help prep your case.

@NotGivingUpToday how much differential in pay are you talking about, and what has led you to be believe you aren't being paid equally to your other colleagues?

It's a tricky one, because within each grade there will always be variability to take account of individual attributes and qualifications that merits a certain level of pay. There's also the "negotiation style" effect of M compared to F. Public Sector tends to be cope with controlling equal pay because they publish grades and upper/lower limits, and do regular benchmarking. Industry / private sector can often make up their own rules. Smaller companies are not obliged to publish their Equal Pay differentials.

I'd want to be really sure on my facts before making a formal grievance, it's important to consider whether it's a battle worth fighting with your employer, as it can sour the relationship.

According to this website:

www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/right-to-know

To tackle this problem [pay inequality] we are launching our new Equal Pay Bill which would modernise the law on equal pay. The proposals, launched in Parliament on 5 February, would give women who suspect they are not getting equal pay the ‘Right to Know’ what a male colleague doing the same work is paid. This would give women the opportunity to resolve equal pay issues without having to go to court which would be a huge step forward.

So, once this 'right to know' is enshrined in law, it means your request wouldn't need to be a grievance, it would be a routine request, to which your employer would have no alternative but to comply, like a Subject Access Request.

Currently, the balance is against the employee, the burden falls on their/your shoulders to highlight the inequality and as you've rightly highlighted, they could retaliate.

Ah, got my naming mixed up. I was talking about the 2010 Equality Act. Will make sure I reference it correctly!

In answer to the questions:

1. We do exactly the same work, and swap tasks between us depending on workload.
2. We have the same qualifications. One of my comparators has additional experience, but the others don't
3. I work part time, but I read the 2010 Equality act as saying that hours shouldn't be taken into account
4. Likewise, the negotiation effect mentioned above is not a defense. They can use as a defence that market conditions were different when they hired someone. But in my case, we were all promoted internally. The men got a grade increase which has additional benefits and pay associated with it, I didn't. And the Act looks to me that the burden to prove that pay inequality is for permitted reasons falls on the employer.

That's really interesting about the new bill. Any idea what the timescales might be in that becoming law?

The Act actually already makes it an obligation for employers to tell employees how pay is calculated, and give information about comparators pay, only balanced by individual privacy constraints. They are trying to avoid that though.

The Equality Act also already includes protection from retribution. But I suspect it's difficult to enforce. Unfortunately, just mentioning Equal Pay seems to have put me in the firing line - so I think the only way is through!

Smaller companies are not obliged to publish their Equal Pay differentials.

No one is obliged to publish their equal pay differentials. What employers with over 250 employees have had to do since 2017 is report on their annual Gender Pay Gap - that's about averages, specifically the mean and median, and is not the same as equal pay.

Equal pay does feed into the gender pay gap - if you pay all your women 10% less, then their average pay will also be less, unless you had a weird situation where you only had women senior managers (and if that were the case, then it'd be unlikely women would routinely be paid less.) But you could pay all your staff equally (i.e. they get the same pay as others doing the same role,) and still have a big gender pay gap, because all your female employees are in low-paid manual and clerical roles, and all the senior management roles are held by men. If you've got just one token woman senior manager, if she's getting the same pay as a male peer, then they have equal pay, but if she's the only woman senior manager, it suggests they have other problems with equality.

Some countries have followed us in bringing in gender pay gap reporting. I think currently Iceland is the only country which reports on equal pay - since 2018, any employer with more than 25 employees has to have their equal pay status certified. I would like to think (and obviously Fawcett does, with the Equal Pay Bill) that other countries, including the UK, will follow suit, but we have a load of Brexit shit to sort out, and a Tory government, so I suspect it will take more than one attempt to make it into law. It's only had its first reading so far - see services.parliament.uk/bills/2019-20/equalpay.html to track its progress (you can do this for any other bill, too.)

(Guess who gave a talk on the history of equal pay last week...)

Here's a link for the Equal Pay Portal, which I find a useful site - www.equalpayportal.co.uk/

3. I work part time, but I read the 2010 Equality act as saying that hours shouldn't be taken into account

Indeed, it should be assessed on the basis of hourly rate of pay, not hours, because far more women than men work pt due to childcare arrangements, so it's important to level that playing field.

4. Likewise, the negotiation effect mentioned above is not a defense

Agreed, it is an explanation though, as to possible reasons why pay can be out of kilter. Women must get better at knowing our worth

It sounds like you can put together a factual account of your specific case for them to review. The fact you are feeling like it has to be done via the grievance process is of concern, but in this case, if the grievance is kept factual, non-contentious in terms of not trying to discredit colleagues but purely to highlight the lack of equity in salary rates, they ought to see you're doing them a favour by point up something that's enshrined in law.

And the Act looks to me that the burden to prove that pay inequality is for permitted reasons falls on the employer.

The reality is that you firstly have to do what you're doing, by presenting them with the facts and highlighting there is an issue - you've obviously put in a lot of work upfront to get to this stage.

That's really interesting about the new bill. Any idea what the timescales might be in that becoming law?

No idea, because it has to go through multiple steps of review, approval and Royal ascent and it isn't clear at what stage it has reached. I suspect Brexit has significantly curtailed progress in exactly this type of crucial work in Parliament. You could always refer to it in your missive to give your employer a sense of what is to come, and show them you've done your research!

But in my case, we were all promoted internally. The men got a grade increase which has additional benefits and pay associated with it, I didn't.

Ouch! It rankles doesn't it. I hope your tenacity with this case makes them see you aren't prepared to put up with it.

Call acas- they helped me with a similar issue.

Likewise, the negotiation effect mentioned above is not a defense

Agreed, it is an explanation though, as to possible reasons why pay can be out of kilter. Women must get better at knowing our worth

There's a fair bit of evidence our there that women do negotiate, but it's not a level playing field, and they don't get the same response to negotiating that men do. We are often given more hoops to jump through, have to achieve more where men in the same position don't.

You need to get an employment lawyer to assist with this so that you deal with it properly

Women must get better at knowing our worth

It's always the woman's fault isn't it? Not aiming this at you daisychain but just the general attitude around women as this is the kind of comment many people, especially men, seem to have regarding the pay gap, that women just aren't as good as negotiating etc

I agree with Ebearhug, that it's not an equal playing field. Men are taken more seriously generally.

Agreed @Rainbows8117 @Ebearhug how many women come on here with self-reported imposter syndrome. Lots! More than men would care to admit to, I'll bet you. We can't rewrite history, it has been like this a long time, women have been conditioned (or have got into that thought pattern) over a long period of time. Yes, we've had hoops to jump through that men don't have, or haven't had to jump so high, which has eroded confidence and added to the belief of not being 'good enough'. It isn't necessarily about finding fault to observe what has gone on.

I was successful getting a pay increase when I raised my concern with HR after no success with my line manager. HR took quite some time investigating and deciding how to proceed.

I did not go to formal grievance or consult a lawyer though I would have if HR didn’t respond as they did.

Are HR dealing with your issue and have they given a time by which they will respond?

Any idea what the timescales might be in that becoming law

It is a private members bill. Unless the government decides to back it I'm afraid it is unlikely to become law.