Prospect presses minister for update on pay transparency amid election concerns and worries about the Retained EU Law Bill
Prospect has written to Minister for Women Maria Caulfield asking for an update on the progress of a government pay transparency pilot which it announced on International Women’s Day 2022.
The pilot is due to finish in a year’s time but Prospect is concerned that either a general election may be called or the EU Retained Law Bill will be enacted before any update on the pilot has been published.
The letter from Prospect’s Senior Deputy General Secretary Sue Ferns points to the impact the gender pay gap has on the gender pension gap, which Prospect reports on annually, and asks for a meeting with the minister to talk about what may be done to address the gender pay gap which currently stands at 8.3% in 2022 among full-time employees, up from 7.7% in 2021. Among all employees, the gender pay gap decreased only slightly to 14.9%, from 15.1% in 2021.
The letter welcomes the pilot but adds:
If an update is not provided before the end of the two-year pilot, depending on the timing of the next general election, it is possible that we go into the next election without any results from the pilot having been published.
On the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill:
If passed into law, the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill will automatically sunset all EU-derived law, which includes protections for equal pay for work of equal value, unless ministers make a positive decision to save the relevant individual laws and regulations.
Prospect is strongly opposed to the principle of the legislation, the lack of parliamentary scrutiny contained within it, and believe it is impossible to properly implement given the scale of legislation requiring review. We would welcome assurances from you that the government will not water down any workers’ rights or equality laws covered by retained EU law.
Prospect’s next report on the Gender Pension Gap will be published on Wednesday 8 March, International Women’s Day 2023.