Business Law Assignment: Equal Pay Law Within Workplace in United Kingdom

Question

Task: Conduct a thorough research and prepare a detailed report on business law assignment critically evaluating the law on Equal Pay in regard to gender equality perspective within the workplace in UK.

Answer

Introduction
The present business law assignment is focused on the origin in respect to the doctrine of equal pay for equal work that can be traced back to the situation of payment disparity that already existed between men and women. In regard to the issue of gender pay gap and with the objective of addressing the same, UK government did undertook initiative in the form of its first legislation that is Equal Pay Act, 1970. But due to its lack of progress or effectivity and the growing number of cases reported within the UK workplaces, the concerned legislation was been replaced with the Equal Pay Act, 2010. One of the main aims behind promulgation of the Equality Act 2010 is to bridge the gaps that existed in the former legislation along with simplifying provisions relating pay equality irrespective of gender differences. However, there has been significant criticism that claims that the Act has not addressed the gender pay gap issue as necessary. As has been noted by various researchers previously that, the issue relating to pay disparity amongst different gender is mostly caused as a result of patriarchy and stereotype associated with discrimination against women. There has been found institutionalized discrimination against certain section of the employees specifically women group of employees which has resulted in this gap (Fell and Dyban 2017). This particular research paper shall therefore look at the causes behind the gender gap and how far this act has been significant in resolving the same. Research has shown that in some parts there has been significant improvement and progress was noticed claiming that that Act had the merit to remove the gender pay gap issue. The research shall first talk about the existing law on equality of pay and thereafter develop the evolution of the Equality Act 2010 and how it helps in making better opportunities for women and removing discrimination (Bryson 2017). Tracing the history of the legislation, article 157 shall be analysed to understand how the CJEU treaty has dealt with questions off excluding discrimination on grounds of sex. The EEC Treaty has facilitated the growth of equal value within article 157 we shall also be widely discussed.

Research Background
Initially the Equal Pay Act of ,1970 which was introduced to tackle the gender pay gap issue was considered to be unreasonably slow and lack the merit that needed women to be treated equal as men in terms of their employment. Thereafter the Equality Act 2010 was introduced to help and simplification of the Equality legislation that existed since the year 1970. It was done by the central government to help in tackling inequality of pay and also narrow down the gender gap issue. The primary objective of the legislation was that equal pay would be insured and there shall not be any sex discrimination to further the objective that the employment terms shall not be on the basis of any discrimination or bias based on sex. The primary criticism that lies with the new act is that there have not been significant changesto the already existing law and no measures are taken remove discrimination (Landon and Williams 2019).

The European Directive that deals with domestic discrimination legislations are concerned with implementation of laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender. The European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/54/EC implemented the principle of equal payment and equal opportunities so that equal treatment could be given to both the genders in matters of employment. The relevant article in this context of employment and occupation is article 157 of the Treaty. Equal pay and equal treatment at work was initiated in the principle of the legislation of the European Union. Article 157 has already been implemented to facilitate the entrenchment of the principle of equal pay for employment services rendered by both men and women. The directive 75/117/EEC which was adopted in the year 1975 was thereafter repealed to include the Recast Directive 2006/54/EC (Ross 2018). The directive for equal pay under article 157 was challenged in the court where it was held that the term pay did not only mean basic pay, but it also meant any kind of compensation required for training courses, supplements and special bonuses along with travel allowance is given to employees. There shall not be any discrimination based on that of gender. The legislation of equality act brings together different legislations under one legal framework to give equal rights to individuals and equality of opportunity for everybody.

Since a very long time the struggle for equal pay and opportunity has remained in the European Union. The equal pay act 1970 started as a way of including women in jobs. The 1970 legislation gives women individual benefit in the same employment that is given to a man. However the equal pay act which became part of the 2010 Equality Act legislation is the first step towards bringing in a common legislation for both private sector and public sector to make sure there were separate laws in terms of women in lower job pay scalewhich was not initially considered. The Equal Pay, 2010 Act took into consideration the equality clause that had the intention of eliminating any kind of lower rates of pay with have not been raised in the last 5 years. The implementation of the two legislations has been slow but significant which has aimed to strengthen opportunities for women and also helped in tackling discrimination and inequality at places of employment (Burri 2018).

Significance of the study
The development of the law has been significantly or the course of 40 years because the fight for equal pay persisted even though the act in the year 1970 was established to eradicate any kind of discrimination against women. However there have been some loopholes in existing law because it does not establish any kind of new procedures needed for establishing arbitration whenever there is any dispute related to pay pattern and inequality. The Act however has modified into a of tool for diminishing occupational segregation and has equalized tax propositions for both men and women. The Equality Act 2010 replaced the Equality Act and ensures that no difference is made in relation between male and female and, that issues circumscribing payment disparity should get addressed.

Research Aims
The aim of this research is to apply a critical understanding towards the impact of equal pay legislation in UK in regard to issue of gender equality at workplaces.

Research Objectives
• To analyze the extent to which the Equality Act 2010 promotes the opportunity of receiving equal pay within any workplace.
• To evaluate the impact of Equality Act, 2010 in creating equal opportunities for women at places of employment.
• To assess the barriers in the way of initiating pay transparency measures within the UK legal system, through the application of equal pay laws such as the Equality Act, 2010.
• To identify the loopholes prevalent within the UK legal system, that gives rise to issues of gender pay gap at workplaces.
• To analyse the ways in which the Equality Act 2010, targets towards reduction in gender pay gap amongst the working class in UK.

Research questions
• What has been the impact of Equality Act, 2010 in creation of equal opportunities for an individual irrespective of his gender?
• What are the ways, targeting gender pay gap has been implemented under the Equality Act, 2010?
• What are the basic reasons that give rise to the issue relating to gender pay gap between men and women population of the working class in UK
• What further reforms should be inserted within the Equality Act 2010, in order to measure and address the growing proportion of gender pay abnormalities in UK?

• Does thereexists any correlation between job authority, wages and gender of an individual?

References
Bryson, A., 2017. Pay equity after the Equality Act 2010: does sexual orientation still matter. Work, employment and society, 31(3), pp.483-500. Burri, S.D., 2018. EU Gender Equality Law. Update 2018.

Butler, M., 2016. Equality and anti-discrimination law: the Equality Act 2010 and other anti-discrimination protections. Spiramus Press Ltd.
Fell, E. and Dyban, M., 2017. Against Discrimination: Equality Act 2010 (UK). The European Proceedings of Social &Behavioural Sciences EpSBS, 19, pp.188-194.
Landon, M. and Williams, T., 2019.The Equality Act 2010.Business law assignment Fitness for Work: The Medical Aspects, p.50.
Ross, F.J., 2018, January. From municipal feminism to the Equality Act–Legislation and gender equality work in UK local government 1980-2010.
In Women's Studies International Forum (Vol. 66, pp. 1-8).Pergamon.