Equal Pay
GMB has 30,000 equal pay
claim against local government and NHS employers throughout the UK.
The claims which are all yet to be settled are estimated to be
worth £250 million to GMB members. The cases on behalf of GMB woman
members who work as cleaners, catering workers, school support
staff and admin workers who are comparing the jobs that they do to
the similar jobs that men do but who earn more. The 30,000 live GMB
claims are on top of the many tens of thousands that have been
settled through negotiation or legal proceedings in the last decade
as GMB has pursued employers who fail to implement equal pay.
This announcement coincides
with the publication of a new GMB analysis of the gender pay gap
league of 240 occupations for full time workers in the UK
using recently published data from the April 2007 Annual Survey of
Earnings and Hours from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
This data shows that for all occupations for full time workers the
gender pay gap amounts to an average of £9,655 per year in favour
of men. The widest gender pay gap is £49,295 for financial managers
and chartered secretaries. Next widest is pharmacy managers £25,697
followed by financial institution managers £20,500 with £19,916 gap
for management consultants, actuaries and economists. At the other
end of the league are public relations officers where women earn
£5,519 more than men in the same job. The study also shows that
there are now 23 occupations in the UK where to all intents and
purposes equality of pay between men and women doing that job
has all but been achieved. These include security guards, social
workers, graphic designers, waiting staff, kitchen and catering
assistants, shelf fillers, physiotherapists, ambulance staff,
hospital porters, laundry staff, train drivers, call centre staff
and civil servant administrative grades. For the full list of all
occupations in the study see note 2 below.
Paul Kenny, GMB General
Secretary said, “Our low paid women members are
often unwilling to make a claim for equal pay, which is a shame
because it is their legal right. We hope that by showing the scale
and size of our work in this area that we can encourage more women
to let GMB fight for their right to equal pay. As the study shows
there is still much more to be done.
One of the
highlights of 2007 was the House of Lords victory for St Helens
council dinner ladies who had been victimised by their employer for
seeking equal pay. GMB was pleased to win justice for these women
and to show up St Helenscouncil for their behaviour – all credit to
these members for setting such an example of courage and
conviction.
At the same time the
GMB reported net membership growth of over 5% in public services
during 2007. Who says unions are dying out? Our role is more
important than ever”
Notes: 1
This massive wave of litigation of GMB claims is managed through
the union’s nine regions and four firms of solicitors – Thompsons,
Digby Brown, EAD and Whittles.
2 The
earnings figures for all occupations in the UK are shown in the
table below. All figures are also expressed as a percentage of the
UK average of £29,999 for ease of comparison. The gender gap is
shown in the salary difference in £’s and also in percentage gap
between where males and females fall in the national pay
league.