UK Legal – Equal Pay Legislation In UK Needs Change

LAWFUEL – Legal Newswire – Equal pay legislation in the UK is out-of-date and needs to be revamped, according to a leading authority on human rights.

The BBC reported that Professor Aileen McColgan told Radio 4 programme File On 4 that major reform is necessary to bring the law up-to-date.

She added that the legislation, which was introduced more than 30 years ago, needs to be updated to deal with pay for women who are doing traditionally female jobs compared to men doing traditionally male jobs.

The regulations currently in place primarily deal with women and men doing the same job but earning different salaries, according to Prof McColgan, who put some of the blame on the government’s failure to act for an equal pay crisis.

Stephen Levinson, Employment Partner at Manches, said Prof McColgan has “correctly identified an area of law in crisis”, adding: “The unspoken truth may be that businesses and the government cannot or will not afford to pay for the equality in pay the law demands.

“Naturally the UK is not alone in this but perhaps our lawyers have been more effective than others in exposing this unhappy fact. Quite what adjustments should be made in the law will create much controversy precisely because so much is at stake.”

Council workers in Birmingham have just announced that they will go on a second strike next week, after the dispute about equal pay which caused a strike earlier this month was not resolved.

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