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UK Ask Employers To Help Equalize The Workplace

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Thu Dec 02 2010

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(From The Govmonitor) -- Employers will be asked to help tackle the gender pay gap by publishing equality data about their workforce on a voluntary basis, under plans announced by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone.

The proposal, which will increase transparency and help employers identify problems, is aimed at organizations that employ 150 or more people and follows a similar commitment for the public sector announced earlier this year.

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Speaking at the launch of the annual Female FTSE100 report, which shows that the number of women on the boards of Britain's biggest companies has barely increased in the past three years, the Minister also announced that the Government will enact the Equality Act's rules on positive action in relation to recruitment and promotion.

This will help employers make their organizations more representative by giving them the option, when faced with two or more candidates of equal merit, to choose a candidate from a group that is under-represented in the workforce.

For example, a primary school that has no male teachers could choose to appoint a male candidate who is of equal merit to a female candidate.

This does not mean allowing "quotas" or giving someone a job just because they are a woman, disabled or from an ethnic minority - positive discrimination is not acceptable and remains illegal.

Details of both measures are contained in the cross-government Equality Strategy, which was published this morning.

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