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Women might have expected. a ar ago, that the Labour Goverent's Equal Pay Act would give em just that. But now many women e beginning to realise that not only the new legislation totally inadequate it that they are having to fight for eir jobs as well. Cutbacks in public spending have t women hard. Local government nployees like cleaners, teachers, hostal workers and nursery nurses 1 predominantly, or even exclusively, male - have found that the cuts can it them out of work. This and the vernment's wage restraint policy is produced climate which is stile to any advance on equal pay. The results of the tribunals set up • the act reflect this. On 7th June 176, the Guardian said: *1,754 women have started industrial tribunal action in the first four months since the Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts came into force. Only 18 have been successful, 100 have had their cases dismissed, and 69 have settled out of court. The largest proportion (Tribunal backlog apart) have withdrawn without gain. Most of the disputes taken to the ribunal so far have been equal pay ther than sex discrimination cases. ut even so, the dice are heavily aded against complainants. There e countless "atrocity" stories about ribunal operations and findings. In ne case, a female playgroup supersor was paid less than a male playoup supervisor. The Tribunal ruled
that as the women's job carried more responsibility than the man's and was therefore not broadly similar - she was not entitled to equal pay!
An even more staggering case came to light during the recent equal pay strike wave. A woman assembly line inspector had an equal pay complaint turned down because, said the tribunal, she was carrying out a preliminary inspection whereas the male inspector further down the line was carrying out the more responsible final inspection. A subsequent Tribunal ruled in an almost identical case, where the woman was carrying out the final inspection, that the equal pay act could not uphold the woman's complaint because the man was performing the more arduous initial inspection!
A survey published by Women's Own in March revealed the uselessness of the Act to most women. The average pay packet of the full time working woman was £33.46. whilst the average pay packet of the man was E52.15. Only two thirds of those readers doing similar work to a man were being paid the same rate. Excuses ranged from men having higher qualifications to the plea that they worked longer in the job. Only 43% of the sample were doing the same job as men; the other 57% were left to the mercy of the job evaluation experts, who constantly downgraded the jobs that women do.
The strike at 2Trico-Folperth, London, shows how hard women have to fight for what should be theirs by right - basic equality. It is probably
the most significant dispute since the Equal Pay Act came into force, and Britain's longest running Equal Pay strike.
The battle started when 400 women production workers asked for an additional E6.50 per week paid to five men who. management and union agreed, were doing precisely the same job.
In fact it was management that went to the Tribunal in an effort to defuse the strike. They "won" the case, but did not dent the solidarity of the strikers who already felt that it was their strength and the support of the labour movement that was going to win the case, which in their eyes needed no further justification. As shop steward Betty Aiston said: "We don't need any outside body telling us what we know we are entitled to"
The struggle reveals the Equal Pay legislation as totally inadequate.
But it is not only the weakness of the Act that stands in the way of equal pay but also the lack of a sufficient response from the labour movement to women's struggles. The AUEW declared the strike official but for a long time gave no strike pay. When the women asked for Trico products to be blacked, the AUEW fulltimers offered precious little practical help.
Despite the fact that most of the male workers at Trico continued working throughout the whole strike, on October 15th, faced with the threat of a national solidarity demonstration, management caved in.
The victory of the women of Trico confirms the lessons of the Scottish equal pay struggles of the last two years: the way to win equal pay and effectively fight sex discrimination is to rely on your own strength and fight for the support of the labour movement.
JENNY DONALDSON