The full speech to the TUC conference by Julie Mellor, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Trade union role in Equal Pay Act

It was simple in the 50s and 60s, relatively speaking. There were women's rates and men's rates for doing exactly the same job - openly advertised. Trade unionists campaigned for a law to bring about equal pay for women, leading to the 1970 Equal Pay Act.

The facts of unequal pay

Unfortunately, as you all know, the Equal Pay Act has not brought about equal pay. Women working full time in this country earn on average £123 less per week than men. Many earn considerably less than that. More than half all women in this country have a disposable income of less than £100 per week, compared to just under a quarter of all men. Only 27 per cent of women in unskilled jobs are members of an occupational pension scheme, according to a TUC report published last week, and only 15 per cent of those working part-time. If you take any of the lowest paid jobs - cleaning, catering, home care - you will find sectors dominated by women many of whom juggle two or three of these jobs at a time, because one alone wouldn't pay enough to live on. And these women are breadwinners - scraping together a living for themselves and their families.

Essential work deserves proper pay

Their work may not be glamorous. It doesn't often hit the head tines. They don't have access to the corridors of power - despite cleaning them - but their work is essential to the smooth running of society and they deserve proper financial recompense for the vital role they play.

Case of less for same work

Some are still paid less than men for doing the same work. Like Dawn Ruff, a cleaner whose case we supported earlier this year. She found she was being paid 60p less per hour than male cleaners. The tribunal rejected the company's justification - that the men were on a different grade - because the work was clearly of equivalent value. She was awarded compensation and back pay so it was worth her taking the claim.

Pay reviews campaign

At the EOC, we continue our campaign to persuade employers to do a pay review. This is the only way to identify and to tackle discrimination in pay systems such as that suffered by Dawn Ruff -which we know goes on in workplaces up and down the country.

TUC project to train members to do a reviews

I am delighted that so many trade union members are learning how to carry out equal pay audits in partnership with the employer through the TUG's project funded by the government's Trade Union Learning Fund. Many more of you will also know the facts and figures on equal pay, thanks to high profile and imaginative campaigns to close the pay gap which unions have mounted across England, Scotland and Wales.

Laws don't work for many low paid women

But for many women in the lowest paid jobs, it wouldn't be possible to take an equal pay claim even if they knew how, because there aren't any men doing the jobs they do. It is simply that the jobs they do are low paid because women do them. What I am saying isn't new. Here is a trade union recruitment poster from the 80s -Underpaid and Undervalued - A Woman's place is in the union.

The image has dated - but the concept holds just as true. I find that quite chilling. What has changed for many cleaners, caterers, shop assistants and others working in the service sector is the hours they are expected to work. In these days of the 24 hour culture, someone has to work to satisfy the consumer demand for services round the clock. That someone, more often than not, is a woman - but she isn't paid extra for doing it.

Twenty years ago, the majority of people working unsocial hours were men employed in manufacturing industries. These days, evening and night work is increasingly common in the service sector, which employs more women than men often in part-time jobs.

Premiums/being penalised

New research (into low pay, hours of work and gender) which will be published later this month by the EOC will show that women are much less likely than men to be paid any kind of premium for working in the evening or at night. Far from getting time and a half - the unsocial hours are just part of the job.

Women end up doing these jobs because they can fit the hours around childcare arrangements. They deserve proper recompense for the effort they put in and the sacrifices they have to make.

Sectors

In 2002, three quarters of working women are still found in just 5 occupational groups~ associate professional and technical (e.g. nurses), admin and secretarial work, personal services (e.g. caring for children or older people), sales and customer service, non-skilled manual work. The vast majority of jobs in these sectors pay less than in sectors where men pre-dominate.

Placing greater value on work done by women

To close the pay gap, we are going to have to put more value on the work that women do, and that means tackling low pay in the sectors where women pre-dominate. If we are serious about women's poverty, and I applaud the motion from the TUC women's conference to Congress on this issue - then we have to make the low pay of women in the service sector a priority.

Problem - the market

We look forward to working with trade union colleagues to tackle low pay in local government, but we need to look at the issue more broadly. Pay and grading structures tend to be based on long established tradition - or else they are based on market forces. Either route discriminates against women. The first because we have not been in the labour market in large enough numbers or for long enough to establish parity, and the second because the market is characterised by a gender pay gap.

Problem - The Law

If we want to establish fairness for all - a fair rate of pay for women as well as for men, then we have to look again at the value of the work being done. Current equal pay laws don't work for low paid women. The law requires women to compare the value of their work to the work of men with the same employer. For many low paid women there are no such comparators in the same employment.

Solutions

I have had a very illuminating visit to Australia this summer. In New South Wales they take a much less technical approach that enables all jobs done by women to be reassessed and properly valued regardless of whether there is a man doing a job of equal value with the same employer. This is something I am keen to explore with trade unionists. Can we learn anything from the Australian experience to make our equal pay legislation more effective?

Carry on equality campaign

Mention of legislation brings me to the final point I want to make this morning. The Equal Pay Act, and the Sex Discrimination Act, are intended as a deterrent - the idea being that people will think twice about doing things which are against the law. And of course, they rely on individuals taking legal action to prove they have been discriminated against. For the laws to be effective in this way people have to know what their rights are, know what to do when things go wrong and have sufficient confidence to pursue the matter. Many of those in the lowest paid jobs do not have this knowledge or this confidence. Too many people live with discrimination day in day out, because they don't see any alternative. That this is still the case, in 2002, is to the shame of all of us in this room.

Campaign target

The latest phase of our Valuing Women campaign is aimed at people in low paid jobs, often in small workplaces where there is no union recognition.

Message

The message is a simple one. Discrimination at work is outdated, it is wrong and you don't have to put with it.

EOC helpline/TU campaigns?

We are advertising the EOC helpline as a confidential source of advice but it could equally well be a trade union. I know that many unions, as well as the TUG itself, have your own campaigns to raise awareness of employment rights. If you can use these materials in your own campaigns, please contact the EOC Communications team in Manchester, or by logging on to our website and send us an email.

Conclusion

This advert makes it quite clear that paying women less than men is discrimination. We may not have women's rates and men's rates any more, but as long as the jobs done by hundreds of thousands of women remain at the bottom of the pay heap, we will still have a gender pay gap.

It is time to re-think the value of the work done by cleaners, caterers, home care workers and shop assistants. The country would grind to a halt without them - it is time to pay them a decent wage for the vital work they do.