What can I do about this sexual discriminaton?

[isthisillegal]

I've name changed for this as I think my employer knows my normal posting name.

We have to do a lot of work out of hours often on top of our normal work. We are able to claim an allowance for childcare for children under the age of 14 at the minimum wage if we are working after 6pm or before 8am. This is really important to me as DP works away 4 days a week. I pay well over minimum wage to my child carer but it helps to claim back some of it.

I've just discovered that MALE employees can claim it at £1.50 above the minimum wages but female employees can only claim minimum wage. I've not confronted my employer yet but the evidence I've got is clear and unequivocal and proves its been going on for some years.

I am so angry this is probably clear as mud but what should I do? Is this legal and what redress have I got? I'm spitting blood

No ideas but fuming for you!! Sure this cannot be right and hope someone who knows is on soon.

This is terrible - I would wait for Flowerybeany before you take action, although my first reaction would be to raise a grievance - can you get a copy of your company's grievance procedure and then follow that? It should clearly explain the process to follow. That is really shitty and sounds completely wrong wrong wrong!

No advice but it certainly can't be legal. CAB might be able to help.

Contact acas

I think you can call them for free

Just bumping for all members MN-ing at work!

This does sound dreadful and, if true, would be pretty clear sex discrimination.

However, and without wanting to sound like I am doubting you, this type of blatant discrimination mostly went out in the 70/80s (prior to which is used to be common to have a woman's benefit package and a married men's one ). Before you go in all guns blazing, I would ensure that you have very clear evidence. It may be that there is an explanation - for example that the person you have heard about is a very senior grade and so entitled to more money. What is the evidence you have?

As others have said, the first step is a grievance - and to involve a trade union rep if you have one.

This is mind-boggling!

As others have said, you need to gather clear and recent evidence and raising a grievance, asking for copies of relevant policy documents, might be one way to do that. Is it (as far as you know) as clear-cut as paying the allowance at different rates to men and women? Or is it that it is paid at one rate to one group or grade of staff and at another rate to a second group, and one group just happens to be mostly made up of men and the other of women? That's still not to say that it's right or fair or lawful, just that you may need to establish whether it's direct or indirect discrimination.

Get advice from your union, an employment lawyer or the CAB.

What Ribena said.

Can I ask exactly how you found out about this - can you give us more information?

Sorry for not coming back sooner, internet's been down.

Basically I was talking to a male colleague about how diffcult it is to get good childcare. He said that given the amount we can pay it should be easy. I said that no many people want to work out of normal hours for minimum wage and he said but you can get above the minimum wage by quite a bit. Anyway we talked for a while and realised we were both getting different amounts. Then we started talking to others (all at or below our grade) and the story was the same When we compared out expenses forms, we found men were being issued with blue ones and women with pink ones and they showed a different maximum amount for childcare. Blank expenses forms are issued every month with pay slips.

We have contacted ACAS as suggested and they have confirmed it is illegal. We are not unionised. ACAS said they needed to see all the paperwork and then they'd contact us again. We've sent them a file of evidence

I'm working from home today. Most of the women in the office are shocked and horrified by this

Shocked at this. sounds like you have an extremely good case. Keep us updated.

Words fail me. How many years have you worked there? How many relavant hours have you worked since you started?

This would make the pages of some of the HR industry magazines for sure.

That does sound very strong then. I'm glad ACAS are helping you so much, that's great. Have a look at Equality Human Rights website as well. They have a helpline as well as easy-to-read sections about the different rights you have and how to use them.

Blue and pink forms. Words fail me.

Glad ACAS are being helpful.

Blue and pink forms? This really does sound like a relic from the 1950s.

the more I think about it, the more I get. Is this a (reasonably good, admittedly) wind-up?

Exactly, squiffy.

Good to hear that you have the support of your colleagues