§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Employment in how many cases has action been taken, or threatened, against those firms which have not yet implemented the terms of the equal pay legislation.
§ Mr. John GrantThe main method of enforcing the Act is by complaint to industrial tribunals. During the period 29th December 1975 to 25th June 1976, 1,835 women made applications to industrial tribunals. I have had five requests to refer employers' pay structures to the Central Arbitration Committee and these are still being considered.
§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he is satisfied with the progress made towards the full implementation of the Equal Pay Act, with particular reference to firms in Scotland and in Fife, respectively.
§ Mr. John GrantThe main method of enforcing the Act is by complaint to industrial tribunals. During the period 29th December 1975 to 25th June 1976, 1,835 women made applications to indus-274W trial tribunals, including 161 in Scotland. Two were in respect of a firm in Fife. One cannot assume a correlation between the number of applications to tribunals and compliance with the Act. There is no other evidence to suggest that the position in Scotland generally or Fife in particular is significantly different from that in Great Britain as a whole.
If my hon. Friend is aware of any breaches of the Act in his constituency or elsewhere, there are a number of ways in which they can be dealt with, and these are set out in my right hon. Friend's reply to my hon. Friend on 2nd March 1976.—[Vol. 906, c. 582–3.]