Millions win right to check colleagues' salaries

A new "gender equality duty" on the public sector will lead to many employers having to reveal more details about pay gaps between men and women, they warn.

Critics say the move could prompt bad feeling and rows between staff and lead to a surge in legal claims.

The introduction of the gender equality duty has been hailed as the biggest change in sex equality legislation in 30 years.

Although equal pay legislation has been in force since the 1970s, women still earn on average around 17 per cent less than men per hour.

Today's shake-up will require all public sector authorities to actively promote gender equality within their workforces.

A major review ordered by the Government has suggested that it should in the future be extended to private sector companies.

According to the Equal Opportunities Commission, the duty means employers have to ensure they have "eliminated discrimination in pay systems".

An analysis by leading City law firm Trowers & Hamlins concluded the new duty was likely to be much more onerous than existing requirements on race or disability because it could affect a far larger proportion of the workforce, and pay gaps based on gender are more ingrained.

It claimed private firms contracted to do work for the public sector could also be affected.

Emma Burrows, a partner at the firm, said: "This goes much further than existing legislation in that it imposes an active requirement on employers to tackle pay inequalities within their workforces.

"More than half the UK workforce is female, and women earn on average 17 per cent less than men, so the potential impact of this law is huge."

She said the changes increased "the risk of exposing inequalities that were previously hidden".

"The door would then be open to equal pay claims on a massive scale," she added.

"The public sector is already being swamped with equal pay claims, which can be backdated six years, to the extent that some local authorities are in severe financial difficulty."

The new duty does not force employers to publish details about staff pay.

But Trowers & Hamlins said that because they would all now be required to monitor progress towards equality, refusal to disclose such information would become more difficult to justify.

Employees could also use the Data Protection Act to request any document compiled to comply with the new duty which related to their pay, it said.

Ruth Lea, of the centre-right Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said: "This is yet more busybody interference from the Government.

"It will break down trust between an employer and an employee, and could cause ill-feeling between staff.

"A salary should be a private transaction."

The EOC disputed the expert analysis of the new duty. "There is no new requirement under the duty to publish details of staff pay, and to suggest otherwise is inaccurate," it said.

Chairman Jenny Watson said: "It means a major shift in employment practice across the public sector, tackling the barriers that prevent women getting to the top and ensuring that all areas of work are opened up to both sexes, bringing more men into professions such as primary school teaching, nursing and childcare."