Equality pursuit too risky.

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 8

Equality pursuit too risky.

NZPA London Rising unemployment and the fear of dismissal are preventing many British women from pursuing complaints of sex discrimination or demands for equal pay, the Equal Opportunities Commission’s latest annual report says. The report, published recently, says significantly more complainants than in previous years say they are reluctant to claim their rights at law for fear of

losing their jobs, or simply “causing trouble." One woman asked to remain anonymous while the Commission pursued her case, to avoid endangering her job. Others would not allow the Commission to take up their cases, despite raising complaints in the first place, and seeking advice and assistance. “The Commission is concerned that individual citizens who have been given a right to equal treatment by

Parliament should not have that right diminished because of the prospect of unemployment or other consequences,” the report says. The report also says that progress towards equal pay seems to have halted in the past five years compared with; the “encouraging” progress between 1974 and 1977. Last year women’s average gross hourly earnings were still less than threequarters of men’s earnings.