Miscellaneous -
Employment
Nine
out of ten Britons are unaware that under UK law
they can be made redundant merely on the grounds
of their age. The charity Age Concern said many
employers regard older workers as lacking
dynamism and unable to be retrained. Nearly a
third of over 50s are currently not in a
full-time job. However, only 3% of the general
public believe that age should be the most
important factor when selecting a candidate for
redundancy. Ageist hiring and firing policies are
estimated by Age Concern to cost the UK economy a
massive £31bn a year. Of 1,000 adults surveyed
62% agreed that laws to combat age discrimination
should be introduced as a matter of urgency. A
European Union law guaranteeing older workers
basic rights is to come into force in 2006.
Men
are still getting a better deal at work and at
home despite years of campaigning to promote
sexual equality. Men do much less cooking and
housework than women and are still rewarded
better in their careers, the study of British
men's lives by the office of national statistics
suggests. The gender pay gap is still very much
in evidence and men hold more high-powered jobs
than women, even though more women are working.
But family life is changing, with less marriage
and men no longer always being seen as the
primary providers. Traditional roles in the home
may still exist with women undertaking the bulk
of domestic chores. While most men live in a
married couple family household, the average age
for a first marriage has risen above 30 for the
first time. Men also appear more reluctant to
relinquish their mothers' apron strings.
In 1999-00, 53% of 20 to 24-year-old men in
England were still living with their parents,
compared with 37% of women of the same age. And
an increasing proportion of men are now living
alone. Men also still have higher wages despite
equal pay legislation, and "outnumber women
in management and in many professional
occupations". This is despite evidence that
men are now "outperformed by women at many
levels of education". One consolation for
women is that they are still outliving men, with
a life expectancy of 80 years in 1998 compared to
75 for men.
Thirty
years after the Equal Pay Act, women are still
getting paid less than men - resulting in a
financial deficit that could add up to as much as
£250,000 over a lifetime. On average, for every
£1.00 a man earns, a woman gets only 82p across
both the public and private sectors. The
government has so far not wanted to make pay
audits statutory, but one trade union in
particular is seeking to strengthen
implementation of the Equal Pay Act through the
use of audits. The Transport & General
Workers Union is pressing all companies where
they represent members to review pay structures
thoroughly to stop any wage inequality.
"If you have a system whereby people are all
quite clear about the grading structure and what
you need to do to be able to move up grades etc.,
then there is a transparency about that which
enables people to see exactly where they stand
within the structure, " says Margaret
Prosser, T&G deputy general secretary. The
union hopes these kind of "pay audits"
will force businesses to take the gender pay gap
seriously. If not, then perhaps the threat of
being taken to an employment tribunal for
refusing to equalise wage rates might be enough
to make companies sit up and listen.
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