Our Commitment: Respect for All
The College has a responsibility to provide all sections of the community that it serves with equality of access and opportunity and will ensure that all, be they staff, students, members of the public, or visitors, are treated with dignity and respect regardless of age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, gender reassignment or social background.
The College identifies and seeks to eliminate all procedures, practices, and attitudes which lead to unfair treatment of individuals or groups by direct, indirect, or combined discrimination, harassment or victimisation on the grounds of age, disability, race, sex, religion, or belief, gender reassignment or social background.
Every member of the College staff has a responsibility and duty to implement the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and the attendant Single Equality Scheme. All College students sign a learning agreement that acknowledges they understand the student regulations which clearly state that they must treat all College staff and other students with dignity and respect age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, gender reassignment or social background and that direct, indirect or combined discrimination, harassment or victimisation will not be tolerated and is a disciplinary offense.
“All members of the College community work together to provide a safe, productive learning and working environment sensitive to the needs of all students which encourages achievement.”
Gender Pay - Background
The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 were published in January 2017. The requirements apply to all public authorities in England who have 250 or more employees.
Key Obligations
The key obligations introduced by the Regulations are as follows:
· Employers must publish the mean and median hourly pay gap between men and women
· Employers must publish the number of men and women in each quartile pay band
· There is also a requirement to publish bonuses but that is not relevant to the College as we do not pay bonuses.
· Public Authorities have to publish the results on their website and on the government website by 31 March 2020.
College results
The College's results are attached and show a 29.5% gap for the mean and a 35.3% gap for the median.
The College employs all of its own Catering and Cleaning staff, all of whom are on living wage and are female and there are significantly more female administrators than male. The median hourly rate for women is, therefore, £11.58 but for males is £17.90.
A comparison was made on lecturing staff and this time there were significantly more male lecturers than female but the mean difference is 2.4% and the median 0%.
The impact of having more female staff on living wage and administrators' grade (circa £10.42 per hour) also shows on the pay quartiles with the ratio male: female showing more females in the first two quartiles and more males in the final two.
The key issue for the College is not so much equal pay as all types of staff (administrators; technicians; lecturers) are on the same pay scales which is evidenced by the negligible difference when we compare lecturers.
The real issue is gender bias when it comes to the types of roles filled by males and females and this has been the case since the first submission in 2017.
Lindsay Tait,
Head of Human Resources,
Hartlepool College of Further Education
Stockton Street,
Hartlepool
TS24 7NT
Tel: 01429 404169 Email: lindsay.tait@hartlepoolfe.ac.uk
