- Conference
- Police Service Group Conference 2003
- Date
- 21 February 2003
- Decision
- Carried
Conference is reminded that two-thirds of UNISON’s police members are women. This is in line with the gender profile of UNISON’s membership nationally. UNISON as a national union is committed to removing all forms of discrimination from the workplace. And the removal of pay discrimination is high on UNISON’s list of priorities.
Conference welcomes the joint review being carried out by the PSSC on pay equity and pay equality issues. But Conference notes with concern the following prima facie evidence of pay discrimination drawn from the recent NOP survey of UNISON’s police staff membership:
1)81% of police administrative and clerical workers are women, half of whom fall into the lowest pay bracket;
2)three in five women police staff (59%) earn £250 or less/week, compared to only two in ten men (38%);
3)men are four times more likely than women to fall into the top weekly pay scale of £350 and over;
4)46% of men are shift workers compared to 39% of women.
Conference recognises that police forces have a duty to ensure equal pay for all their employees, whether permanent, temporary, full-time or part-time. The above findings suggest that this is not happening, and may also indicate that female police staff are facing discrimination in respect of shift working, overtime, car allowances, and other pay-related benefits.
Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:
a)promote UNISON’s Equal Pay campaign among police branches;
b)publicise the eventual results of the PSSC pay equity/equality review;
c)d)encourage branches to review their pay systems by means of EOC equal pay audits and the PSSC 13 factor equality-proofed job evaluation scheme;
e)assist branches to negotiate equal pay outcomes to local pay reviews;
f)highlight and publicise equal pay within the police sector.
g)