Lib Dems launch equality initiatives
Thursday, 13 August 2009 12:01 AM
By Liz Stephens
The Liberal Democrats today launched a series of policy initiatives aimed at preventing discrimination in the workplace.
The proposals include 'no name' application forms to prevent unconscious discrimination against women, particularly those from ethnic minorities.
The Liberal Democrats are also supporting the equalities bill's proposal to make private companies publish data on their pay scales and conduct mandatory pay audits.
Earlier in the year, a civil service pay audit revealed that top female civil servants are paid up to 20 per cent less than their male counterparts.
Nine government departments had a difference in earnings between male and female senior civil servants in comparable jobs of ten per cent.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the guilty departments included the Attorney General's office, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Home Office.
Women currently make up less than one-third of all senior posts in the government.
Liberal Democrat equalities spokesperson Lynne Featherstone said: "Forty years on from the Equal Pay Act, the government still hasn't put its own house in order.
"The fact that women make up such a small proportion of full time senior civil servants is very depressing. If the civil service is unable to treat men and women equally, what hope is there for the private sector?"
According to the ONS, the government agency with the greatest gender pay difference at the top of the pay scale was Ofsted with a median 20.7 per cent gap.
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