Making the grade

The implementation of the national framework agreement should deliver equal pay for work of equal value.

Equal pay reviews are required and I suggest that reporting now focuses on examining if women, ethnic minority groups and part-time staff are treated equally with their male, white and full-time colleagues.

This involves the drafting of finely tuned agreements for personnel handbooks. Key to this will be the agreement on placement on spine points within grades. Women, in particular, suffer from being low on points within grades. Long incremental scales unfairly discriminate because of career breaks and carer roles. Part-time staff suffer more when pay is not mapped to grade points and they do not even have access to an annual increment.

Sandra Jeans
Natfhe branch chair
Gloucestershire University