Member

275: After Clause 140, insert the following new Clause— “Secretary of State: equal pay enforcement function(1) Payroll and other company information required by HMRC for the purposes of taxation may be used by the Secretary of State for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the equal pay duty under the Equality Act 2010. (2) The Secretary of State may conduct more detailed investigations into equal pay compliance on the basis of such monitoring of payroll and other information and an employer must take all reasonable steps to cooperate.(3) In the event that the Secretary of State is of the view that a particular employer is in breach of its duties to provide equal pay for like, equivalent or work of equal value, they may—(a) issue a private notice to the employer, advising of that view and recommending rectifying measures in relation to past discriminatory pay or future pay practices and policy,(b) issue a public notice with the type of advice set out in paragraph (a) above, or(c) seek such relief as would be open to individual employees in the appropriate court or tribunal, on their behalf.(4) A court or tribunal finding in favour of such an application may, in addition to awarding appropriate compensation to victims of discriminatory pay practice, impose a civil penalty, not exceeding 10% of the employer’s annual turnover, as it finds appropriate in all the circumstances.(5) The Secretary of State may employ algorithmic technology including artificial intelligence software in the monitoring of equal pay compliance but must provide any court or tribunal in which relief is sought, with details of any relevant software and evidence of the effective functioning of the computer system employed in the monitoring and investigation of the employer in question.”Member’s explanatory statement This amendment seeks to probe why equal pay laws have been left to individual employees to enforce by personal litigation, and how an element of state enforcement might assist such employees in achieving their rights to equal pay as provided for under the Employment Act 2010.