§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to publish the agreement reached between his Department and the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union on equal value pay for speech and language therapists; if he will place a copy in the Library; and if he will make a statement. [143181]
§ Mr. Denham[holding answer 19 December 2000]: An out-of-court settlement was reached for all speech and language therapists' equal pay claims, following decisions of the employment tribunal in three cases, and announced on 7 May 2000. The settlement also provided a new pay and grade structure for speech and language therapists which was notified to the National Health Service on 19 May 2000. The settlement was negotiated between the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union on behalf of the speech and language therapists and my officials.
351 of the around 1,800 speech and language therapists who lodged claims have been offered retrospective payment.
Retrospective payment is based on (i) the decisions of the employment tribunal and findings of the independent experts (this applies to the 1980s cases only); (ii) an assessment of the job weight carried out by work assessment experts; (iii) a formula agreed by negotiators to provide a reasonable and fair payment (individuals were not equalised with their individual comparators for many reasons); (iv) the length of relevant claim.