1970s Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts Page 1

Critically examine the key provisions of the Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts which came in to force in the mid 1970s

The rights of women have always been an important issue in British history; giving them equality would be the final stage in this long running battle. Traditionally women had been exploited by the patriarchal society they lived in; it was not until 1928 that they secured the vote on the same terms as men, that this issue was really tackled. The Equal Pay Act of 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act secured in 1975 aimed to give women the same opportunities as men, if they didn’t then women had the power of the state to demand compensation against the employer. With the USA as a model, and demands for entry in to the European Community, Britain seemed behind these new laws, British society appeared draconian and this had to be addressed quickly. In the following paper I intend to assess how the Acts were achieved, what they intended to do, and whether they were successful.

In the 1930s the first real strong arguments were arising for equal pay, this was important because by this time women had gained the vote. To ignore them would be political suicide. The government at the time showed its support for equality aiming for “its complete application at the earliest possible time” . However in the 1940s the government claimed implementation would be too expensive. It was calculated that if the state had to increase its own wage bills throughout services this could total an additional 600 million pounds . It was not until 1944 that Thelma Lazalet-Keir had the Education Bill amended to give male and female teachers in state schools the same wages, yet this was a single success that was not repeated for a number of years after. The 40s did see the advent of the Royal Commission for Equal Pay though and between 1944-1946 it attributed payment problems to a lack of demand for female labour. The commission also highlighted inferior female strength, a lack of flexibility to respond to abnormal situations, and shorter industrial life as more reasons for a lower female wage. These were not the only barriers, among males there was a lot of prejudice towards women, men had the stronger trade unions and the power of the workplace, they did not want this challenged. Through the 1950s Equal Pay campaigns continued to arise, but it was not until the 60s that the government saw that the issue had to be dealt with. This was because in 1961 the government wanted to enter the European Economic Community but to do this it would have to comply with European laws. More importantly this included article 119, made at the treaty of Rome, and requiring for a country to have established Equal Pay laws. In 1964 the Labour government made Equal Pay an election pledge, when it retained office a tripartite study group was set-up to assess what needed to be done. By 1967 the speed of change was slowing, talks became deadlocked on costs and definitions, and backbenchers were growing restless. It was not until the government appointment of Mrs Castle that talks with the tripartite resumed. Mrs Castle compromised a treaty between British industry and the fundamental values of the treaty of Rome. With this success Equal Pay became law in 1970; it had been a long process to achieve, yet as the first hurdle had been jumped changes would continue to follow.

In the original Equal Pay Act Mrs Castle did not include an anti-discrimination law, Robert Carr warned that this omission would make enforcement ineffective. The Act set-out that a woman or a man be treated no less favourably than a man or woman in all contracted matters if employees engaged in same or similar work. Or where jobs had been given an equal value under the jobs evaluation scheme. It also covered other areas of pay including bonuses, holiday pay, and overtime. Fundamentally this was the idea of equal pay for equal work, and equal pay for work of equal value. The Act dealt with individuals, collective agreements, and wage regulation in all establishments, this included those working for the Crown, police and armed forces. The employee was supported by a system of regional industrial tribunals, and the opportunity to make questions of law to the Employment appeals tribunal. If the employee felt they could not afford to pursue a case then the Equal Opportunities Committee (EOC) that oversaw the legislation would provide aid.

The Act did of course have an impact, as figures show change was stimulated as women became better represented and more confident in the workplace. Incomes of whites and minority groups narrowed from 25 percent in 1967 to less than 7 percent in 1974. Between 1970-1977 women’s average hourly earnings moved from 63.1 percent of male wages to 75.5 percent . However from this point female wages did not continue to rise against males, in fact they started to fall. It appears the Equal Pay Act encouraged increased segregation as employers and trade unions reached agreements on grading of jobs, this meant women were moved to certain sectors separate of men where wages could not be compared. Beatrice Webb describes that this was due to “natural differences” between the sexes; this was a problem that had always existed before, in areas like the Sweated Trades. This lack of accurate definition of a jobs worth caused problems with enforcing the law, as it was difficult proving ‘like works’ due to the complexities of job evaluation. Many jobs could be classed as being “broadly similar,” it was found that to overcome paying women more money many employers attributed more work to men, often claiming this was due to a physical need. This was a very obvious loophole that was often exploited and highlights the inherent problems the Act had, it had to be improved to be effective.

In 1975 The Sex discrimination Act was implemented with the intent of building on what the original Equal Pay Act had done. This had been done when in 1974 labour reclaimed parliament and quickly produced a white paper. More importantly the Home Secretary was sent to the USA where the issue of Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination had already been tackled. Emulating the American model the Sex Discrimination Act sought to make laws more comprehensive, as Robert Carr described, “It is a huge relief to find a piece of legislation which is not designed to undermine what the last conservative government did but is designed to build on what we achieved.” It dealt with the non-contractual elements of employment, it also defined that it was unlawful to directly discriminate against someone on the grounds of sex, and marital status. Importantly the Act dealt with indirect discrimination, this was when a number of one sex could not comply with an apparently neutral rule, which could not be shown to be related to performance. If a person was mistreated in relation to training, promotion, and recruitment, this could also be attributed to sexual discrimination, and victimisation. The exceptions given to the employer to choose one sex over another were limited, if suitable facilities could not be provided, for example separate sleeping facilities, or when women could not work abroad due to that countries customs and beliefs. Women in the armed forces were also subject to certain restrictions, and barriers remained in entering the Church. The Act did not cover pensions, taxation such as social security, and maternity leave. There was of course opposition; these voices included Lord Monsoon and Mr Bell who believed that social attitudes should have previously changed in favour of sexual equality rather than being forced upon people. This was because they saw that many men would not be happy to work alongside women and for the same pay if there job had more traditionally been a ‘men’s club’. However the Sex Discrimination Act was supported by labour and the Conservatives in the House of Lords, with the belief “it was right to use the law to shift attitudes by specifying what was unacceptable practice.” Symbolically it was the first time labour had adopted a group of people rather than constraining themselves to a class. They had aimed to make working class women’s wages the same as those in the middle class; the reality was that equal pay went across these boundaries.

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