§ 4. Dr. Summerskillasked the Minister of Labour whether he will make a Statement as a result of his meeting with representatives of the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress on 7th December concerning equal pay for women.
§ Mr. HattersleyI met representatives of the C.B.I. and the T.U.C. on 7th December to consider a report by a Joint group of officials on certain technical aspects of implementing the principle of equal pay. I am arranging for a copy of the agreed Statement issued after this meeting to be circulated in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Dr. SummerskillDoes not my hon. Friend agree that, as we are a party of principle, implementation of equal pay should not be delayed until after the next general election, and that a prices and incomes policy is neither fair nor just unless women are paid the rate for the job?
§ Mr. HattersleyThe Government have stated on many occasions that they are committed to the principle of equal pay, and I am happy to reiterate that commitment. But I am sure that the House will agree that the present economic Situation is not propitious for implementation. The Government have made plans to take some technical steps to ensure that we are ready to implement it when the economic Situation is right, however, and that is why I had talks with the C.B.I. and the T.U.C. on 7th December.
§ Following is the Statement :
§ Equal Pay
§ Mr. Roy Hattersley, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour today 894 (Thursday, 7th December, 1967) saw representatives of the C.B.I. and the T.U.C. to resume discussion of equal pay following a study of technical Problems by officials of the Ministry of Labour, the C.B.I. and the T.U.C.
§ Mr. Hattersley reaffirmed the Government's commitment to the principle of equal pay but said that in the present economic circumstances it was not possible to take immediate steps to give full implementation to the principle. But the Government was anxious to take action to be ready to implement the principle when circumstances were more favourable.
§ The meeting endorsed the conclusions of the Joint group of officials
- (a) that the problem of defining equal pay could, for all practical purposes, to confined to the interpretation of I.L.O. Convention No. 100 and Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome.
- (b) that voluntary methods of implementing equal pay were to be preferred to legislation (subject to the T.U.C.'s call for certain minimum conditions to ensure positive action); but that if Britain were to join the European Common Market a review of existing statutory wage legislation would be needed to give effect to the requirements of the Treaty.
- (c) that although it was possible to roughly estimate the total direct cost of equal pay within broad limits, on the basis of existing knowledge all that could be said about the impact on particular sectors was that it would probably be very much greater in some industries than in others.
- (d) that (apart from incomes policy considerations) the pace of implementation might have to take into account the particular circumstances of different sectors.
§ The meeting also agreed to the proposals for further action recommended by the Joint group of officials:
- (1) A study might be commissioned of the cost implications for particular sectors of applying equal pay. If the findings of such a study were to be generally acceptable, it would however be necessary for the researcher(s) to secure the mutual agreement of both sides of industry as to the bases on which the research would be conducted.
- (2) The Ministry could prepare a paper setting out the implications for legislation of the equal pay provisions of the Treaty of Rome.
§ Solely for the purpose of the proposed study of costs it was agreed that the working definitions to be used should be equal pay for the same work.
§ The meeting agreed that the Joint group of officials should be instructed to plan and launch the studies. The C.B.I. and T.U.C. representatives undertook to give full support and Cooperation to this work.