U.K.
The GMB general union has signed a collective agreement with Dudley Council in the West Midlands region of England that addresses previous problems of gender pay inequality in the pay structure.
Read more at > GMB (EN)
The Party of European Socialists and the group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament have launched a campaign to highlight the persistent problem of gender inequality in pensions provision and to put pressure on the European Commission to take effective measures to deal with the issue. Read more at > PES (EN)
The FO Fonctionnaires civil service federation is calling for action to deal with gender inequality in the public sector and in particular the very low percentage of women in senior positions. The federation wants negotiations with the government on direct and indirect discrimination in pay, on childcare and work-life balance and on training and recruitment. It points out that while women make up 60% of the public sector workforce they account for only 22.2% of managerial staff and only 10.8% of the most senior appointments. The union has criticised the government for failing to come up with
(May 2017) The vpod public services union has highlighted the problem of gender pay inequality across occupations, noting that lower pay in occupations dominated by women, like care, cannot be justified on a gender-neutral basis and that they are the result of specific historical developments. The union cites new research from Essen University in Germany and argues that legislation that currently requires action by employers with over 50 employees should be amended to provide for an evaluation of occupational groups.
