A major equal pay case involving the Department for Transport will begin tomorrow, where the gender pay gap stands at 21% – some 4% higher than the national average.
A London employment tribunal will hear how women working in the predominantly female workforce of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) earn more than £5,000 less than their male colleagues for doing similar jobs at the Driving Standards Agency. Both the DVLA and the DSA are executive agencies of the DfT.
The case, brought by the PCS union on behalf of 38 women, comes just days after the government published its Equality Bill, which aims to eradicate the gender pay gap and stamp out inequality. PCS claims the DfT has so far refused to investigate pay inequality and stamp out the gender pay gap.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It is a bitter irony that in the same week the government publishes the Equality Bill we are forced to once again take a government department to tribunal over equal pay. It is scandalous that the DfT should go to the lengths it has to avoid its gender duty obligations and defend pay inequality.”
PCS successfully fought a similar case involving the Prison Service in 2006, which cost the employer £50 million to introduce equal pay.
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