Over 10,500 organisations in Britain with 250 or more employees have reported their gender pay gap for 2019, following our successful enforcement action against late reporters.
Following the April deadline, six organisations including Pho Trading Limited and the Academy Transformation Trust failed to respond to our warnings and we opened formal investigations under Section 20 of the Equality Act.
As a result of the investigations, all six organisations have now reported their figures for this year and entered into formal legal agreements with us, committing to report on time for the next five years. If the organisations fail to report on time again, they will face further action and could be taken to court and fined.
In total, we notified 46 private sector and four public sector organisations of our intention to open statutory investigations into their failure to report their gender pay gap data on time. We also publically named the organisations. This included three ‘repeat offenders’ that had failed to report on time two years in a row.
After being informed about the legal action, the majority of the organisations swiftly reported their gender pay gaps or we were satisfied that they are out of scope of the regulations.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, Chief Executive at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:
We cannot achieve gender equality in the workplace without first shining a light on the problem and understanding the underlying causes of inequality. That’s why gender pay gap reporting is so important. It’s also a legal requirement and changes in staff and poor organisation are no excuse for not complying with the law and withholding this vital information.
We are pleased that we’ve now achieved 100% compliance and will continue to use the full force of our powers to ensure every company that is required to report does so.
Minister for Women and Equalities, Amber Rudd, said:
Tackling the gender pay gap is good for business, but reporting is just the first step. We have produced guidance setting out the best proven ways for employers to close their gaps - and we want to see them putting in place comprehensive plans to do just that.
We still need a much wider change across all of society, and that is why we have introduced a range of initiatives to deal with the drivers of the gap, including shared parental leave and returners schemes.
We will now be contacting organisations that have reported implausible data. Any that are found to have submitted inaccurate data will be required to re-submit and could face further legal action.
The six organisations that have entered into legal agreements with us are:
- Academy Transformation Trust
- P&A Food Management Services Ltd
- Pho Trading Ltd
- Lewis’s Home Retail Ltd
- EF Language Schools Ltd
- The Westbury Hotel Limited
