Why an Equal Pay Review?
Legislation has been in place for many years to avoid discrimination between men and women. This is in terms of their pay and conditions, where they are doing the same or similar work; work rated as equivalent or work of equal value. There is also legislation in place to avoid unequal treatment on race, disability, sexual orientation and religion and age and there is protection also for part time workers.
The 2004 pay deal for local government services, concluded by the National Joint Council, included the requirement on local authorities to conduct local pay reviews. The conducting of such reviews would continue to demonstrate the robustness and fairness of agreed pay structures. It was also recognised however, that, for pay structures that have been in place for some time, like ours in Lancashire, that anomalies may be highlighted which would require attention to ensure that pay structures remain free from any potential inequality.
What is the content of an Equal Pay Review?
An equal pay review looks at the reward system on the basis of equality, such as gender, race and, disability etc. It includes the following;
1. The introduction of new, or extension of existing, job evaluation (JE) schemes which evaluate the types of jobs in an organisation and rank them by allocating scores. (Later such scores are then be used to inform rankings in the pay structure.)
2. A review of policies relating to terms and conditions. (In Lancashire, for example, we have a range of different agreed terms and conditions which apply to different categories of staff. We need to evaluate such differences deciding whether they either remain justified and objective, or if not, amend these accordingly.)
3. A statistical analysis of our payroll and employee records data will take place, to review how current pay and rewards are reflected in the make-up of the workforce. An evaluation will then be done to determine whether any general changes need to be made as a result of such an analysis.
Job Evaluation Schemes – NJC or HAY
At the outset of the Job Evaluation project there was considerable discussion about which of several Job Evaluation schemes available should be used in Lancashire. An agreement was reached that all posts covered by the Green book (IE up to SCP54) would be evaluated using the NJC Job Evaluation scheme. This is the scheme that has been developed especially for workers in local government and therefore is most accurate in reflecting the skills profiles for these jobs. Posts above SCP49 would also be evaluated using the Hay Job Evaluation Scheme and the most positive result used.
In May 2008, elected members agreed the use of the Hay Evaluation scheme for posts to include posts that are first line managerial and professional. For posts that are public service focused, the NJC Scheme will continue to be used.