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in a timely manner and with sufficient detail to enable software developers to ensure that their products could provide an accurate and automated solution to help employers with this latest legislative obligation. Throughout consultation and the development of regulation, it has been widely believed that the power of payroll software placed us in a position to be able to gather the relevant data and be more transparent about our pay processes; without software the very idea would have been untenable. But this is only part of the picture. Though software can indeed provide the data, it needs to have been collected during the year that preceded the implementation date of this policy. Not only did no regulations exist for most of that year, but also, and more importantly, there was no guidance and no publicity to raise awareness to the thousands of employers who would be required to react and provide the time and resources to meet this new requirement. The CIPP Policy team ran a quick poll through February and part of March 2017 asking: “Have you tested your gender pay gap data in preparation for the mandatory reporting duty that comes into effect in April 2017?”. Of the 825 responses received, 30% stated they had fewer than 250 employees so the duty to report did not apply (a telling number for government hoping for voluntary reporting). Of the remaining 70%, 24% had already tested their data and 29% were planning to before April, but 9% were not aware of the new duty. Given this poll ran until the middle of March, this latter figure is a poor reflection of the publicity that surrounded the delivery of this policy; however, the results overall speak well of the preparations made and importance attached to pay transparency processes by many payroll and human resources professionals. The regulations that feed the guidance are as follows: ● private and voluntary sector employers: The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 ● public sector employers: The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 Regulations that enable gender pay gap reporting in Northern Ireland are required to come in to effect by 30 June 2017 as
laid out in section 19 of the Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. The regulations require employers from all three sectors with 250 or more employees on the snapshot date to calculate and report several different measurements. Although there are slight variations elsewhere between the regulations, the measurements remain the same for all three sectors. The annual snapshot date for: private and voluntary sectors is 5 April; but it’s 31 March for public authorities in England and certain cross-border authorities and non-devolved authorities operating across Great Britain. When consultation began in the summer of 2015, the go-live date – which at that point only affected private and voluntary sector employers – seemed a comfortably long way off, and promised sufficient time for “clear, concise and timely guidance” to be produced for software developers, employers and their agents. In the end, guidance came late in the day – particularly for software developers – and it is fair to say that questions still remain on some key definitions and how the guidance reflects the underlying regulations. However, guidance on the basic details can now be found on GOV.UK. More detailed guidance on managing the reporting requirement and which includes worked examples can be found on the ACAS site (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) site. Further information can be found on the GEO’s campaigns website (http://bit. ly/2p5AB93) where employers can access resources, case studies and publish their gender pay gap figures. Comment Time will tell whether mandatorily requiring employers to calculate and report their gender pay gaps will work to achieve a reduction in the overall gender pay gap level and also “change the world of employment for women”, by “helping [them] break the glass ceiling”. Time will also show us whether this latest legislative obligation will simply add to the load on increasingly burdened employers. In the meantime, please keep your questions on GPG reporting and others coming through to policy@cipp.org.uk .
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Issue 31 | June 2017
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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