The problem is not just in the public services, it is everywhere in the private sector too. It also isnt necessarily confined to people who are in different jobs; you can find that even when they are doing the same job women get paid less than men. There will be a cost to readjusting, but it should be compared with the longer-term cost of trying to maintain unequal pay. The cost of not having effective equality practice could be huge in terms of women bringing cases against their employers. It is a problem that needs to be addressed, because more and more women are going to find out that they have a cause for complaint. In particular, companies need to look for hidden discrimination. Discrepancies can go unnoticed until an audit is done, so it is important to do regular pay audits, otherwise everything seems fine when it isnt. Britain has had equal pay legislation since 1970, and now with equality issues coming under the European human rights laws, it is an even more pressing issue.
Anne Mitchell, spokesperson for Unison
A lot of figures get bandied about when this sort of case comes out. A 15 billion readjustment is something the press has come up with; we havent put any figures on it. There is currently a review going on and we are trying to address the rather old-fashioned view of mens work and womens work which, although no longer a practical reality, is still a philosophy that remains under the old pay system. The problem is not just at Cumberland, its across the whole of public services. Local government is a particular problem area, where even things like bonuses are affected. What we dont want to do is to raise peoples expectations: we have to be a bit circumspect, you certainly wont get pay backdated to 1948. What we are looking at is a review of the whole pay structure of the NHS and the creation of a single spine system. We want to see people on points, rather than on grades for different types of work, like manual, or technical. We need a seamless system. Its important that there is a comprehensive restructure, not a Trust by Trust affair of individual cases.
Richard Foreshaw, spokesman for the Department of Health
The former secretary of state for health, Frank Dobson, launched the Agenda for Change: Modernising the NHS Pay System in February 1999. Some 18 months before that, a job evaluation working party, consisting of management and trade union representatives, looked at job evaluation in the NHS. This clearly shows that we have identified the need to develop a national job evaluation framework. These plans to modernise the NHS pay system pre-date the Cumberland case; they are not being driven by it. 'We are aiming to create a pay system based on job evaluation, which will provide an objective basis for valuing jobs in the future. These proposals to modernise the NHS pay system are at an advanced stage in negotiations, and are currently under consideration by ministers.
