TWO leading Scottish specialists in the talent and capability sector have called on UK businesses to rubber stamp their commitment to equality by publishing their latest gender pay gap figures – despite the UK Government removing the mandate requiring it this year.

Martin Ewart and Suzanne Lamont – who between them have more than 30 years leadership experience – have urged companies to follow the examples set by the likes of Network Rail and Bam Nuttall in posting their 2019 gender pay gap reports.

The call comes after a revelation from the Equality Trust that women in their mid-30s may never know equal pay in their working lives – and during a pandemic which has, according to Lamont, started to reverse more than 70 years of progress in gender equality.

Ewart, CEO of Taranata Group, said: “I am fortunate enough to head up an organisation that benefits from the fantastic skill and expertise of some of the best female leaders in our industry, but the conversation around gender equality and the potential damage the pandemic has done to progress in the movement still made me feel a little uncomfortable as it shows we all have even more work to do than we did previously.

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“One point that resonated with me was that, in a year of events that are heavily impacting women in the workplace, the UK Government has removed the mandate that requires companies to publish their gender pay gap reports. This seems extraordinary given the fact that the publication of these reports could continue to spark vital conversations at a time where equality in the workplace has grown in prevalence.”

Lamont, managing partner of Hanya, said: “The potential silencing of the conversation about the gender pay gap is simply one more side effect of a pandemic that has already had a huge impact on working women, who have borne the brunt of additional childcare and wider caring responsibilities brought about by lockdown and the introduction of widespread remote working.

“With commentators remarking that we have potentially gone back to the 1950s, it begs the question of whether Covid-19 has seen us lose 70 years of progress in as little as seven months. With women making the decision to dial back their careers as a result of lockdown, are we looking at a situation where the glass ceiling is the least of our worries and there simply won’t be enough women in the mix to break through into key leadership roles?

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She added that organisations which are more diverse and inclusive are “known to make better decisions and really succeed”.

On publishing pay gap data, Lamont added: “It will give us a real picture of how things stand as we come to the end of an exceptionally difficult year, and allow us to take stock of what we need to do – at an organisational and collective level – to ensure we don’t turn the clock back too far.”