04 September 2023
It has been reported that the government has confirmed it is to reinstate equal pay protection legislation, through secondary legislation later this year. These protections would have been removed under legislation that received Royal Assent in June, to revoke numerous European Union (EU) rules.
The UK left the EU as part of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023, which gained Royal Assent on 29 June 2023. However, sources state that the safeguards will remain part of UK law, meaning women will still have the right to equal pay as men, if they work for the same source that sets their employment terms and conditions.
According to UK equality law, men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay, unless any difference can be justified. An EU provision known as the single source test closed this gap, helping lower-paid women take action against their employers over pay.
A source states that, Dr Zara Nanu, chief executive officer at Gapsquare, said:
‘‘While the legislation is still playing catch up, organisations can take a proactive approach on this. From leveraging technology to analyse gaps and root out the core problem, or moving pay analysis into a more regular activity, organisations can do a lot more to tackle gender pay gaps and go beyond what’s simply legally required.”
Read the full news story, here and here.
HM Revenue and Customs has a ‘Retained EU law dashboard’, this dashboard shows a list of retained EU laws (REUL). These are laws that the UK saved to ensure legislative continuity immediately after Brexit.
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