AS INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day takes place tomorrow (March 8), law firm Trethowans is shining a light on the issue of gender equality in the workplace.

Women in Hampshire will be able to see if their male counterparts are being paid more than them when a new law comes into effect in April.

The new Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 are expected to come into force on April 6, meaning all private and voluntary-sector employers with 250 or more employees have to publish information about their gender pay gap results.

Trethowans is urging businesses across the region to prepare for the changes, as latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show the gender pay gap is currently at 9.4 per cent.

Simon Rhodes, senior partner and head of the employment team at Trethowans, says: “These new regulations form an important step towards gender equality in the workplace. It will force employers to shine a light on any differences in pay between men and women and in some cases the public pressure may encourage them to pay more fairly.

“As with the introduction of any new law, there can be some confusion around how it will work in practice, which is why we are working with businesses to help them keep on the right side of the regulations.”

Trethowans is sharing its guidance on how the new law will work with businesses in the region.

Timings

In the private sector, the first Gender Pay Reports will have to be published no later than April 4, 2018. In practice employers will publish much earlier than this date. Public sector organisations will have to publish no later than 30 March 2018.

Who is classed as an employee?

According to the draft regulations, employees for these purposes are anyone who “works under a contract of service, a contract of apprenticeship or a contract to do work personally”. This will include zero hours’ workers, apprentices and some contractors. It will include executive directors and it may include non-executive directors too. The draft regulations currently don’t include Partners in partnerships.

What constitutes pay?

There are detailed requirements on how you work out pay. Pay is made up of ordinary pay and bonus pay. It seems that occasional overtime pay isn’t included in either type, which could skew the figures.

In companies with a group structure, each legal entity will need to report its data. There is no legal requirement on smaller employers to report data, but they will be encouraged to do so. Employers whose headcount varies will have to report in any year during which the headcount is 250 or more. However, it is highly likely that smaller employers will have report this information from 2018 or 2019 onwards. As with pension auto-enrolment and other employment changes, there may be a tiered approach.

There are six gender pay metrics that need to be reported on, which can be found on the Trethowans website or on ACAS’ website.

Where does the information have to be provided?

The Gender Pay Report must appear on the company website, where it is accessible to employees and the public. The report will also have to be uploaded to a Government website, which isn’t operational yet. Employers can add an explanation or commentary if they wish, but that isn’t compulsory. ACAS has issued draft guidance, which will probably be updated when the changes are introduced in April.

What happens if businesses don’t comply?

Failing to publish this information may result in the Equality and Human Rights Commission using its enforcement powers. It can currently investigate, issue an unlawful act notice, to require an action plan for change, or obtain a court injunction to prevent an unlawful act. Additional powers to ensure compliance seem sure to be introduced in April 2017 or at some point afterwards. A future regime of fines seems likely too.

In addition, the indirect effects on an organisation could be widespread. An organisation’s reputation, goodwill and share price could all be adversely affected by a lack of reported information or a large gender pay gap. So could its ability to recruit and retain employees, or win work in tender processes. If there is a void where the gender pay gap information should be, people may speculate why that’s the case and reach their own conclusions.