Equal pay bargaining in the UK local government sector

Abstract

This article explores recent developments in equal pay bargaining in the UK local government sector. It situates equal pay bargaining against the implementation of a new single status agreement designed to promote equality at work and the supporting regulatory lever of the Gender Equality Duty. The implementation of single status has been fraught with tensions, despite the government's encouragement for an integrative approach by employers and unions. In simple terms, the cost of equal pay settlements has constrained and stalled implementation. Yet the bargaining environment has also become more complex, with a proliferation of strikes over equal pay claims and increased recourse to litigation. While recent legal judgments pose potential challenges for how unions represent members, bargaining within the sector over equal pay claims is likely to become increasingly litigious.

Towards more disorganised decentralisation? Collective bargaining in the public sector under pay restraint

“…Nevertheless, even though sector-level bargaining helped achieve the shared goal of standardisation, tensions between employers and unions were quick to surface as cost control became a dominant issue (Oliver et al, 2014). Disorganised local deals emerged where councils moved quickly to try and contain the potentially 'ruinous' costs of equal-pay claims, but the unions were accused of pressuring women members into hastily accepting deals that fell far short of the full six years of back pay in order that largely male manual groups would not lose out (Perkins and White, 2010).…”

The Good, the Not So Good and the Ugly: Gender Equality, Equal Pay and Austerity in English Local Government

“…1 The GED was hailed as 'The biggest change in sex equality legislation in thirty years, since the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act itself' (EOC, 2006: 2) and was the last major initiative of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) before it was subsumed into the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). At the same time there was a major collective agreement between the three main public sector unions and local government employers to introduce equality proofed pay structures as part of the Single Status Agreement (SSA), on-going since 1997 (Conley, 2014;McLaughlin, 2014;Oliver et al, 2014;Rowbottom, 2007).…”

“…Although there is now an extensive body of research (e.g. Annesley, 2014;Conley, 2012a;Rubery and Rafferty, 2013) on the impact of austerity on gender equality, and a growing body of research on the implementation of the SSA in local government (Conley, 2014;McLaughlin, 2014;Oliver et al, 2014;Rowbottom, 2007), there is little sociological research on the implementation of the GED, and none that we are aware of which brings together primary research data on these two key initiatives for women's equality in the UK. The purpose of this article is therefore to report on research which examined the implementation of the GED in relation to equal pay in English local authorities during this turbulent time for gender equality.…”

Challenging gender pay gaps: Organizational and regulatory strategies

“…Three of the articles are based on empirical research in public sector organizations. Here there is significant regulatory proximity and where women's employment is relatively secure, but horizontal and vertical segmentation nevertheless persists, and conditions have worsened under austerity (Oliver, Stuart, & Tomlinson, ; Price & Colley, ; Thornley & Thörnqvist, ). A fourth draws on a study of one large private sector multinational and one large, majority‐state‐owned company, whilst another uses a matched employer–employee panel dataset to investigate the relationship between ‘family‐friendly’ workplaces and pay inequalities.…”

“…Three of the articles are based on empirical research in public sector organizations. Here there is significant regulatory proximity and where women's employment is relatively secure, but horizontal and vertical segmentation nevertheless persists, and conditions have worsened under austerity (Oliver, Stuart, & Tomlinson, 2014;Price & Colley, 2017;Thornley & Thörnqvist, 2009)…”