The PDA Union, the only independent trade union in the UK exclusively for pharmacists, has highlighted pay inequality as another reason that employers in the sector should work constructively with the union as the independent voice of pharmacists.
As part of efforts to remove gender inequality in the workplace larger companies, those with over 250 employees, are now legally obliged to declare the difference in average pay between male and females employees, known as a “pay gap”.
Well-run HR departments will have been monitoring this difference for some time, but now the information has to be made public. Details revealed so far in the pharmacy sector include a mean pay gap of 21% at Boots and 20% at Well. Other businesses will be declaring their situation in the coming weeks.
Head of Policy at the PDA Union, Alima Batchelor said “The objective is that pay should not be directly or indirectly affected by your gender, so we should be closing the gap between the average male and the average female employee.
Individual employees can still be rewarded and promoted for performance and/or service, but that should be across the entire workforce, with nobody disadvantaged by their gender. This isn’t just our opinion, this is the law and there has been legislation outlining equal pay obligations in the UK for nearly 50 years.”
There can be few employees remaining in the workforce who started their career before the Equal Pay Act of 1970, yet generations of accountants, HR experts and managers in company head offices have not yet been able to fix this issue. The PDA union believes part of the solution is improving how colleagues are treated throughout their employment and that can be facilitated through working with a trade union.
If, for example, female employees don’t get the same development opportunities as male colleagues, then their relative career progression can slow, leading to pay inequality. Such opportunities aren’t only formal training courses, but everyday activities such as who the Area Manager chooses to pilot a new initiative. Employees may see everyday sexism at work like this but find it hard to make senior management aware of their concerns, as the message may not filter through multiple layers of management to reach those in the centre.
Mrs Batchelor concluded “If senior management and company owners are serious about fixing this problem as soon as possible, they should create a working environment where every employee knows they have someone independent on their side who can raise their views. Employees want to know that, if they feel they are being treated unfairly, issues can be resolved as locally, quickly and informally as possible without having to always rely on company procedures such as raising a grievance.
A positive relationship between senior management and trade unions means that general feedback from the workforce makes it way to the centre of the organisation and it can be addressed. We’d like to see senior management across the sector put serious effort into fixing issues like pay inequality by working positively with our trade union.”
Well Gender pay gap report : https://www.well.co.uk/information/
Boots gender pay gap report: http://www.boots-uk.com/our-stories/boots-uk-publishes-its-gender-pay-gap-figures/
Test your knowledge of the Gender pay Gap (Office of National Statistics site): https://visual.ons.gov.uk/explore-the-gender-pay-gap-and-test-your-knowledge/