INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY AND EQUAL PAY

That this House recognises the importance of International Women's Day on 8 March which has been commemorated by the trades' union movement since 1908, when thousands of women garment workers in New York took to the streets to demand trade union rights and better pay and conditions, and is now an annual event on which to celebrate women's progress towards equality around the world and to highlight the inequalities that still persist between men and women; notes with concern that women in the civil service earn on average 14 per cent. less than their male counterparts, meaning that Government employees suffer greater pay inequality than the national average; further notes that there are over 200 delegated pay negotiations in the civil service which perpetuate the pay differences and sex bias both between and within Government departments; further notes that the new Equality Bill is aimed at bringing together existing discrimination laws into one single Act which will include current equal pay laws and the gender equality duty; and believes that in order to make progress on closing the gender pay gap, cross-departmental equal pay audits must be made a legal requirement, central funding must be made available to departments to address pay inequality, and the gender equality duty must be extended to the private and voluntary sectors, and enforcement improved.