HCS Business Matters
03 November 2009
How Are You Paying your Workforce?
Many employers continue to pay and reward their employees based on length of service as opposed to their performance in the role, without realising they are potentially setting themselves up for claims of discrimination at work.
On 20th October, the Court of Appeals found in favour of Christine Wilson’s (a Health & Safety Inspector) claim that women within the Health & Safety Executive were discriminated against with regard to salary. Christine challenged her employer’s seniority-based pay system claiming it disadvantaged women, who generally work for shorter periods of time than their male counterparts, as they take more time off to have family.
A representative from the employment law firm Russell Jones & Walker, who represented Christine Wilson’s case, said “The Court of Appeal’s judgment in Christine Wilson’s case has confirmed that employers cannot continue to structure pay scales in this way where is inappropriate and leads to women being paid less to do the same jobs as men. Employers need to give careful thought as to whether extra years in the job really does lead to better performance and if so for how long.”
The outcome of this ruling potentially makes it easier for employees to challenge how their employers’ pay structures reward length of service. Employers may now find themselves in a position where they have to fully justify how they reward their workers, paying particular attention to ensure these schemes in no way discriminate against women.
HCS Recommends
A fair and transparent performance-based salary structure will help:-
- Employees to see and understand how the work they do will be rewarded.
- You to target, recruit and retain staff of the calibre that is required.
- Employees to have a clear view as to how their salary can grow with their performance.
- You to increase staff motivation, loyalty and morale.
- Employees clearly see and understand how their performance links directly to corporate goals.
- You to remain competitive with the employment market.
- Employees to focus on what is important and their development needs.
- You to build a true performance culture.
14 January 2010, webeditor
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