Asking questions about pay



In April 2014, the government abolished the statutory equal pay questionnaire. This was a straightforward but 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. 




Although the formal questionnaire has been abolished, women can still ask structured questions in writing about their pay, as Acas guidance, Asking and responding to questions of discrimination in the workplace, makes clear. Tribunals can take evasive or incomplete answers about pay into account when deciding whether an employer has broken the law.



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, 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).