EHRC to take action against companies who fail to publish gender pay gap reports
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has announced it will take enforcement action against companies that have not complied with their obligations to meet the deadline for gender pay gap reporting. Both private and public sector employers should have met their deadlines of 4 and 5 April respectively under the Gender Pay Gap Regulations, which require employers with 250 of more members of staff to report their gender pay gap (defined as the difference between the average earnings of men and women, expressed relative to men’s earnings). However, there were early indications that this was a deadline that many employers were not going to meet.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission issued warning notices to 1,400 employers that failed to report by last year’s extended deadline. Employers who miss this year’s gender pay gap reporting deadline for a second year could face ‘formal’ enforcement action and may be named and shamed.
It is a legal requirement for all relevant employers to publish their gender pay gap information.
The EHRC’s litigation and enforcement policy explains how it decides what action to take against employers who don’t follow the rules. The Commission has the power to take enforcement action against any employer who does not comply with their reporting duties.
It will first send warning notices to organisations that have failed to report on time. It may then carry out an investigation to confirm whether the company is breaching the regulations, after which it will send a ‘statutory unlawful act notice’, or, if a public body, a ‘statutory compliance notice’, as required.
If any organisation fails to comply with the statutory compliance notice, the EHRC may seek a court order. Failing to comply with the court order is an offence, punishable with an unlimited fine if the organisation is convicted. Details of any employers that the EHRC investigates will be available on the EHRC’s website.
In 2021, the Commission took action against 1,400 employers who had registered but failed to report by the extended October 2021 deadline. This included issuing warning notices to over 200 public sector employers and over 1,100 private sector employers across England, Scotland and Wales. By 25 March 2022, 99% of the 1,400 employers had taken the steps they needed to comply with the gender pay gap regulations.
The EHRC has said it will consider taking formal enforcement action against repeating non-reporters once the 2022 reporting deadlines have passed.
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