unicornnews: Government may enforce equal opps

Good news for the ladies, this, if it goes through.

Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman is piloting a new bill which will force on all public sector firms to show whether or not they pay male and female staff equally. The requirement would also be extended to those private sector firms retained on public sector contracts – about thirty percent of the UK’s private companies. Under the proposed legislation, the remaining private sector firms would be provided with a template to publish their data on the gender gap, but there would be no statutory requirement to do so. The new requirements are apparently the result of Harman’s frustration with the gender pay gap, and the fact that it has failed to improve.

In other areas of the Equality Bill, rights for breastfeeding mothers to feed their babies in public will be introduced, whilst private member clubs will no longer be allowed to discriminate against women. And it’s not just good news for the girls. The same bill will seek to outlaw discrimination in goods and services on the basis of age – ie, insurance companies won’t be able to refuse older people premiums. Of course, that isn’t really graduate news, as such, but you might be a mother one day, and you’ll definitely be old at some point, so take note.

Liberal Democrat Equality Spokeswoman, Lynne Featherstone commented: “If the government genuinely wants to tackle equality, it must do more to end the growing discrepancy between the rules on pay for the public and private sector.”

Posted Wednesday July 2 2008 by Caro Moses