Asking questions about pay




In April 2014, the government abolished the statutory equal pay questionnaire. This was a formal questionnaire procedure that enabled a woman to ask her employer for information about pay to help her decide whether to issue an equal pay claim in the tribunal. Tribunals could draw an adverse inference from a failure to respond or from weak or evasive answers. The government has refused to reinstate the questionnaire. This is despite evidence that it was an effective means for women to decide whether or not to launch a claim. 





The statutory questionnaire was replaced by Acas guidance, Asking and responding to questions of discrimination in the workplace, available from the Acas website.



Section 77, EA 10 bans contract terms that prevent workers discussing their pay in order to establish whether there is pay discrimination. Contract terms banning discussions of pay for any other reason are lawful. Employees do not have to discuss their pay if they do not want to. 





In practice, for most workers, fair pay outcomes are much more likely to be achieved where a collective approach is taken through a trade union. Where a union is recognised, the employer owes important statutory duties to disclose information about pay for the purposes of collective bargaining (see Chapter 5).




www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/m/p/Asking-and-responding-to-questions-of-discrimination-in-the-workplace.pdf