An amendment has been put to the Government Work Plan about undertaking the policy work for equal pay for equal of equal value. This is different to the equal pay for equal work which is already covered. The explanatory note gives the following definitions.

‘Equal pay for equal work’ is different to ‘equal pay for work of equal value’. Equal pay for equal work applies when there is ‘equal work’ meaning that employees perform the same work or substantially equal work for the same employer. When making an equal pay claim, a person would need to demonstrate that the difference in pay is related to one of the grounds of protection – so, for example, if it can be shown that an employer pays male cleaners more than female cleaners. Please note that this would already be considered discriminatory under the Sex Discrimination (Employment) (Guernsey) Ordinance, 2005 if the difference in pay was based on sex.

Equal pay for work of equal value goes further and allows different jobs within an organisation to be compared. For example, if a person is doing work that is different from that of a worker of the opposite sex in the same organisation, but the different jobs are ‘of equal value’, that person would be entitled to equal pay. The claimant would have to show that the different work would be ‘rated as equivalent’ under a job evaluation scheme, had there been one. Job evaluation looks at factors such as skills, knowledge, level of responsibility, effort, etc required to undertake a role. Differences such as payment for extra responsibilities are permitted, provided the differences are not related to the sex of the worker. Pay should be in direct proportion to the level of the job (as measured by job evaluation) in any given organisation.

See the amendment by clicking here.