Over the years, much energy and too much paper has been used in trying to shift attitudes and change culture around equality issues, such as equal pay.
We appear to be incapable of learning from the history we ourselves have written these last 20-30 years, so it is small wonder our efforts to shift attitudes and change cultures continue to be bogged down in the twin shackles of ‘bado kidogo’ [see another post on this blog] and the sphincter-clenching fear of innovative risk taking.
Even in the minimalist, red-tape-slashed, buy-one-get-one-free, specific equality duties proposed by the UK government, there remains the requirement that bodies report annually on what they have done to meet the general duty, although bodies can publish the report as part of something else – not sure if ‘OK’ or ‘Hello’ would count. In some senses, the basic reporting principle remains pretty much as it has been for some decades. Which has achieved what?
In such as equal pay, not a lot. The Fawcett Society report from 2010 reminds us that :
Forty years since the Equal Pay Act women are still, on average, paid a sixth less than men for full time work.
So. How can we get bodies to ‘report’ key information on such as equal pay, the percentage of disabled people employed, the percentage of BME people in senior management, and the rest, while at the same time making sure it is ‘published’ in such a way as will become as familiar to people as the occupants of the Big Brother House, and in a way which might trigger a shift in attitudes and change cultures?
Imagine. You are on the main street of some UK city, mid-week, midday. You are lucky enough to be in work, but are unlucky enough to work in the ………… [fill in the sector yourself] where management walks around with sphincters clenched and tries to convince you that this is part of good risk management practice. You have had a hard week so far, and already deciding that you can’t be bothered cooking from scratch when you get home that night. You are rushing along a crowded pedestrianised precinct, trying to get to the bank to persuade them to ease up on the threats to your overdraft. You are passing M&S who have in the window their advert for ‘Dine in for £10’. You instinctively alter course, causing a busking trombonist to collide with your sphincter-clenched manager, who happens to be strolling towards the local walk-in health spa for a weekly colonic irrigation [discounted for regular clients], and reach for the M&S door [you don’t do automatic doors so that you can pretend you are getting some exercise].
As you reach out to push the door in, at the same time trying to avoid knocking over some pervert standing too close to it and leering at some risqué item of bubble-gum pink underwear on display, your eye is caught by a brass plate set in the middle of the glass door and at head height. You stop suddenly – and cause untold damage to the 4 or 5 people who were on auto-pilot immediately behind you [they could already taste the Cajun-spiced chicken breasts], to say nothing of the trombonist who has just managed to disentangle herself from your manager.
On the brass plate, under the M&S logo, are some brief figures ;
The M&S UK workforce at January 2011 has :
A gender pay gap of 0.25%
22% of staff identify as disabled
6% identify as BME
4% identify as LGB & T
10% of senior managers are BME
Slowing down you ponder the figures, now having time to accidently-on-purpose nudge the pervert into grappling with the model clad in the risqué underwear and so causing the bored security staff to put into practice some of their never before used anti-terrorist capture and restraining techniques. Stifling a grin as you hear the muffled falsetto screams of pain, you grab the chicken breasts, greens, triple-orgasm chocolate dessert, bottle of ‘anything as long as it is red’ wine, and exit via the automatic doors [well you got greens instead of roast potatoes], wondering how M&S have managed to get the gender pay gap cut as low as that.
You speed along, aiming to get some light bulbs out of BHS before the bank.
Trampling on the donations hat of the painted robotic eejit who always seems to be busking outside BHS, you dodge a couple emerging from the store dwarfed by their two massive, 70% off, bargain suitcases of a colour pattern so extreme it reminds you that the cat was sick just as you left home this morning. Just as your stomach heaves at the memory, your grin returns as one of the castors on the wardrobe-sized suitcases parts company with a rending nails-down-the-board screech that reminds you your manager will be back early at work as he will probably not bother with the colonic irrigation. The shockwave of expletives from the castor-less suitcase propeller almost blows you through the doors but, again, you pause. There is another small brass plate in each of the BHS doors. These give you similar information to that you already registered at M&S, although you are impressed when you read that the percentage of BME staff employed by BHS is 11%.
Laden with not just light bulbs, but BHS light bulbs, you find yourself ready to face down the bank staff. Grappling with their glazed doors – none of which appear to have ‘push’ or ‘pull’ marked on them – you find that a brass plate is now on each of them. This gives you similar data to that already registered on your lunch-break travels. This time the bank reveals that 8% of its UK senior management are LBG&T. You are absorbing this as the doors slide open sideways with what sounds like a heavy sigh, bringing a slight reddening to your cheeks. You find the expected ordeal with bank staff does not materialise and indeed as you leave, your light bulbs intact, you wonder if you too could carry off that particular shade of pink.
Rushing back to work, and as you approach the imposing and inaccessible steps up to headquarters, you notice that your manager seems to be mounting them in an unusually slow, sideways, crab-like, style. You are so transfixed that you barely notice the brass plate only fixed that lunch-time to the sandstone pillar at the centre of the grand and inaccessible entrance [the glass doors are on closer springs which are too heavy for some people] to your workplace and which explains that as at January 2011 the gender pay gap in ………… is 12.8%.
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