Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 17 January 2018.

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Photo of Janet Finch-Saunders Janet Finch-Saunders Conservative 2:37, 17 January 2018

Cabinet Secretary, this year we celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the suffragette movement's success in obtaining true equality for women by means of securing the vote. We also celebrate—well, we should be able to celebrate—48 years of the Equal Pay Act 1970, yet here in Wales it is paid lip service only. We still see disgraceful equal pay gaps present within Welsh public services—not only at the heart of Welsh Government, but also in local government. Now, I have been chasing this issue for quite some time now, since I became aware of it. But the fact of the matter is, as I stand here today, we still have 92 equal pay claims outstanding. Now, that is an appalling set of events. I have to say, it was up in the hundreds when I first started raising this in the Senedd here, and some authorities have been made aware that this is not acceptable. But I have to tell you that Ynys Môn and Swansea are among the highest. These women deserve this money; it is their money. And at the moment, the back and forwards that is happening between lawyers holding out on these women, who have already earned this money, and the money should be theirs—. Now, I also note that the Welsh Government's strategic equality plan, back in 2012, committed the Welsh Government to work with partners to identify and address the causes of the gender, ethnicity and disability pay and employment differences. Cabinet Secretary, with respect to our local authorities and their leaders, what efforts are you taking to stamp out this really bad practice of inequality and ensure that these women get their just deserts and the pay that they are due?