UNISON's 2008 Equal Pay Campaign

UNISON has launched its campaign to close the gender pay gap by lodging a record 33,000 equal pay claims against public sector employers. Two thirds of UNISON members are women, and the battle for equal pay has been ongoing for a number of years. Significant pay increases for thousands of low-paid women workers have been achieved but there is still a lot more to be achieved. "Equal pay is not just the wish of the trade unions," said UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis. "It is the law of the land. Yet, 30 years on, the Equal Pay Act is still seen by many employers as a take-it-or-leave-it bit of legislation. This cannot be allowed to continue. It must be implemented robustly across the UK." Funding particularly in local government, remainscritical to achieving equal and fair pay. This issue was discussed in an article in The Guardian recently and also the issue of no win no fee lawyers which poses a challenge to collective negotiations. "As a direct result of UNISON’s campaigning through the Labour Party, last September the government released £500 million to 46 local authorities to fund equal pay," Dave Prentis said. "But more is needed. In addition, the government must change the law, to cut the time it takes for legal action. At the moment, it takes years, is costly and, in the meantime, women remain underpaid.”

The pay gap between men and women is around 17%, according to official figures. This means that women are losing out on a staggering £4,000 a year, based on an average salary of £23,600.

A major problem

UNISON prepares for pay campaign

UNISON will unite and bring its whole strength to bear over the next few months against what general secretary Dave Prentis called "the most unjust pay policy I've ever seen". That was the message given at the pay summit where members met to discuss the government's attempt to limit public-sector pay over the next three years to just 2%. Inflation has been more than 4% for the past year, making 2% rises a pay cut in real terms. Pay rises in the private sector are running at around 3.5%-4%. Discussions took place on how to build and organise a campaign for the reward and pay rises public-service workers deserve, both across the 1.3-million strong union and across the six-million strong public service workforce, working with other unions in the various public-service sectors. The government says its pay policy, announced in last autumn's comprehensive spending review, is about tackling inflation but incomes experts pointed out that that public-sector pay isn't counted in the inflation index: and public-service pay rises don't increase inflation - repeating a message from leading economists, quoted in a Financial Times report headlined "Inflation driven by potatoes" - inflation is about the cost of what people buy, not what public-service providers earn.

In two weeks time, MPs are to vote on a 2.8% pay rise. Gordon Brown has urged them to accept 1.9% but MPs will get a free vote. The vote is based on recommendations from the Senior Salaries Pay Board. But 2.8% or even 1.9% on an annual salary of £60, 675 is still a big pay increase by my calculations - a lot more substantial than what a lot of our members are earning. This could be the last ime that MPs do get the chanc to vote on their pay increase though as a review is to be carried out to examine the use of objective criteria to establish MPs pay.