Private Sector employers watch out!

Employers in the private sector should watch out for a high level of discrimination claims as ‘equal pay firms’ seek to cash in on the abolition of pay secrecy clauses in the Equalities Act introduced in October.
Pay secrecy clauses are now unenforceable, and employers will not be able to prevent staff disclosing salary information provided it is to establish pay discrimination. Employers may not realise that anyone can ask their employees for pay information.
Recently ‘equal pay firms’ have targeted the public sector – urging everyone from dinner ladies to teaching assistants – to make pay discrimination claims. These firms have now pretty much exhausted the public sector and the market has reached saturation point. The Equality Act has now opened the door for these firms to more easily target the private sector.
This type of firm often target groups of employees – and larger employers in the private sector need to watch out for this as they will be the next targets.

As always – recruiting and retaining staff is a logistical nightmare, ever more fraught with legal potholes and things that can go wrong.

Using a reputable recruitment and / or HR consultancy can massively affect your exposure, as well as freeing up your time to concentrate on the core activities of running your business.

For details of our free recruitment / HR audit which will look at how your business can improve its processes and keep from falling foul of the law, drop an email to carole@beresources.co.uk.