Women win equal pay in employment dispute

Published on 16 Jun 2010 under category: legal

Two women working for Skills Development Scotland have won an equal pay tribunal after learning that their male colleagues were earning substantially more.

According to the Herald Scotland, Mairi Buchanan and Pat Holland said men doing the same job as them were being paid £10,000 more a year.

They first heard of the discrepancy in 2002 when they joined the organisation as customer service managers.

Six years later in 2008 they found that the pay gap still existed so decided to contact the Equality and Human Rights Commission with their employment dispute.

A tribunal was held in February and the women have now learned that it had ruled in their favour, stating that they were entitled to equal pay and benefits to those of their male colleagues.

Commenting on the case, Kaliani Lyle, Scotland's equality and human rights commissioner, said: "The commission believes that employers must develop ways to measure and report on their gender pay gap, by adopting transparent pay policies and more flexible approaches to work."

The Equal Pay Act of 1970 makes it unlawful to discriminate between male and female employees with regards to pay and working conditions where they are carrying out the same or similar work.

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