ScotRail urged to improve gender pay gap plan

Women working for ScotRail are on average paid 16.4 per cent less than men and only make up 7.9 per cent of the highest paid employees, new gender pay gap figures have revealed.

The statistics, which have to be provided to the government by companies with more than 250 employees, are worse for median earnings which show the “middle paid woman” is paid 25 per cent less per hour than the “middle paid man” – for every 74p a woman earns, men are paid £1.

Women are also employed in 62 per cent of the lower to lowest paid jobs in the rail firm, despite making up just 21 per cent of its staff overall.

Only when staff are paid bonuses is there no gap between men and women.

The figures for 2019 are a slight improvement on ScotRail’s gender pay gap of the previous year when women earned 72p for every £1 earned by men when comparing median hourly wages, with the overall women’s wage being 28 per cent lower than men’s.

However, the Equality Act of 2010, states that women are entitled to equal pay with men doing equal work, and the Scottish Government – which awarded the £7 billion contract to run ScotRail to Dutch firm Abellio – has said closing the gender pay gap is a priority for the economic health of the country.

Scottish Labour MSP James Kelly said the “picture painted by the figures is not what should be expected of the national rail operator”. He said: “I sincerely hope that this gap will narrow during the next reporting cycle, and Abellio-ScotRail should be doing everything they can to ensure that that is the case.

“The reporting of this data allows a light to be shone on the companies that are not performing as well as they should be in this respect. It is now quite clear there is a problem, it is time to take action to correct it.”

ScotRail’s own human resources strategy also includes an Equalities Plan, which sets out how it intends to eliminate discrimination and promote equality, which is monitored by Transport Scotland.

However, Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Mike Rumbles MSP said: “The Scottish Government has placed a major emphasis on closing the gender pay gap so these are disappointing figures for ScotRail, especially at the extremes of the pay scale.

“ScotRail needs to set out what steps it will take to deliver a network that makes the most of all the talents that our country has.”

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Annie Wells said: “ScotRail should be leading by example when it comes to closing the gender pay gap. But like every organisation linked to the SNP government, it’s all talk and no action.

“ScotRail needs to set out in detail how it’s going to stamp out these inequalities, and promote the role of women in the organisation.”

Transport Scotland said the figures had shown a “narrowing of the gap” and said that the rail operator was “confident it pays men and women equally for doing equivalent jobs”.

A spokesman for the government agency added: “Despite improvements in the pay gap figures, ScotRail recognises it can do more, especially as the gap is largely driven by the gender make-up of its organisation.

“Women are traditionally under-represented in ScotRail’s operations and engineering teams, however it’s hoped a new Inclusion and Diversity strategy will deliver some immediate changes.”

ScotRail is intending to run a campaign in partnership with the train driver’s union Aslef to hire two female drivers from every ten successful candidates throughout this year.

It said that female drivers in training have increased by 39 per cent since 2017 to 78, while female conductor numbers are also up by 16 per cent to 162.

Gerry Skelton, ScotRail HR director, said: “ScotRail is committed to equality, that’s why men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across the business. Our pay policy is agreed with the trade unions and implemented regardless of gender.

“It’s no secret that the railway industry has historically been very male-dominated, but we are working hard to change that.

“We’re absolutely committed to developing a workforce as diverse as the communities it serves. That’s why this year, we’ll be running a series of dedicated recruitment programmes to encourage even more women to consider a career with ScotRail.”