Equal Pay and Flexible Working Bill [HL]

My Lords, I begin by declaring the interests shown in the Register. I rise enthusiastically to support this Bill. I am delighted to do so from the opposition Front Bench. My colleagues and I want to see such legislation on the statute book as soon as possible. I congratulate my noble friend on introducing this measure, which seeks to strengthen existing equal pay legislation—to give it more teeth in the face of continuing unfair treatment. My noble friend has a remarkably impressive record of taking up the issues of equal pay for working women as a Member of this House, in her political career outside this place and as a working woman and mother. I was very pleased when my friend and colleague, Theresa May, launched her campaign for equal pay for women. We have had a very important debate. Many constructive points have been raised and must now be carefully considered. I strongly support the bid to obtain cross-party support for such a measure. I was delighted to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Handsworth, a rather impressive social and economic case for supporting the Bill. I reflected that when I was invited to the TUC summer reception, several of our colleagues in the trade union movement were getting very concerned about the legal side to this and the way in which it was becoming a bit of a paradise for lawyers. But we are now reassured by the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, that we are going to keep lawyers away. We look forward to his assistance in ensuring that that happens. There were a number of concerns about the detailed provisions of the Bill. Three successive speakers, the noble Baronesses, Lady Gould, Lady Prosser and Lady Morgan of Huyton, raised some important points. Although I disagree with some of the perhaps political elements of what they said, we should carefully reflect on a number of those concerns about detailed provisions. Perhaps I may say that the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, painted a rather partisan picture of the past. However, it is important that I should remind the House that when I was Secretary of State for employment, I said: "““Discrimination against women is not only inefficient, it is clearly wrong””.—[Official Report, Commons, 10/3/94; col. 434.]" I believe that so strongly. Equality of opportunity is a vital principle, so is equality of treatment and remuneration. Whether one terms it as equality, diversity or just fair play, women must be given every opportunity to fulfil their potential. The points raised by the noble Baronesses, Lady Prosser and Lady Gould, about upskilling and ensuring that our education and training process gives an equal opportunity to women were so important. The words ““fair play”” are the English translation of the title of the ““chwarae teg”” programme I introduced when I was Secretary of State for Wales, in combination—I reflect on the presence of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote—with Opportunity 2000 and the Equal Opportunities Commission. I strongly agree, as I agreed then with the noble Baroness, that progress seems to be appallingly slow. We have to do something about that. Fifteen years ago, I was able to point to both real and relative growth in the hourly rate for the female working population. Over the previous 15 years, it had risen by 55.9 per cent, as compared with 40.4 per cent for the male population. But we have seen too little progress in the right direction since. As several noble Lords reminded us, men still get paid more than 17 per cent more than women, meaning that over an average working life a woman will lose or forego a massive £300,000. This pay gap exists not only in low-paid, part-time jobs: women working in full-time jobs also earn less than men, as was also pointed out. I was concerned when I read that, recently, Catherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society, the women’s campaign group, said: "““After years of painfully slow progress in closing the pay gap, we have now actually gone into reverse gear, with the pay gap widening for women working full and part-time””." These are worrying facts and we have to reflect on how we will overcome them. It is important that we should tackle the pay gap not only by passing a law, but also by raising awareness, particularly among young people. Some important points have been made about flexible working.