The Government is committed to introducing legislation to require mandatory equal pay audits in certain circumstances. The power to enable Ministers to make regulations requiring employment tribunals to order employers who are found to have breached equal pay laws to carry out equal pay audits is included in S.98 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which inserts a new S.139A into the Equality Act 2010. The Government Equalities Office has now published Equal pay audits: a further consultation, which explores further the details of equal pay audits and the likely contents of impending legislation which, it is hoped, will come into force in 2014.
The consultation sets out details of the four circumstances in which an audit will not be ordered (Paragraph 13), the proposed scope of the regulations (Paragraph 14) and seeks views on various issues, including how compliance with an equal pay audit order should be assessed, the Government’s decision not to require employers to publish the results of their audits and whether the EHRC good practice guidance on how to carry out an equal pay audit will be adequate enough to assist employers. The consultation closes on 18 July 2013.
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