Women’s minister Ruth Kelly spends £500,000 from Quality Part Time Work Fund in bid to reduce gender pay gap

Minister for women, Ruth Kelly, will grant nearly £500,000 to a number of organisations to create more quality part-time jobs at senior level, in an effort to reduce the gender pay gap.

The scheme comes a year after the Women and Work Commission report, which was commissioned by the prime minister to help women reach their full potential.

Royal Mail is one of the first beneficiaries - it was awarded £25,000 in funding from the Quality Part Time Work Fund. The company will need to match the grant to develop job-share and part-time managerial posts in two sorting office sites in London.

It aims to make 10% of management jobs on these sites part-time within 18 months.

Other successful bidders for the fund include Kelloggs, Tesco, three local authorities, Durham constabulary, and four voluntary sector organisations.

Kelly said: “The part-time pay gap is still too wide with women working part-time earning 40% less than men working full-time. Working with a range of employers across business, local government and the voluntary sector, we can kickstart the process of enabling more women to work part-time in senior posts.”

Small businesses under misconception of being fully compliant with age discrimination legislation could face tribunal claim02 April 2007 Small businesses are risking tribunals as they fail to make changes to employment policies following age discrimination laws, research has suggested.

A survey of 750 small businesses by conciliation service Acas revealed that only 17% have introduced changes to their employment and recruitment practices. Respondents said they had not made changes because they believed their organisations already complied, or that the regulations did not apply to their business.

Two-thirds of employers in the survey thought they were fairly or very well informed about the age discrimination regulations. However, fewer than 30% gave a correct response to a question about whether it is still lawful to have a retirement age.

Acas chair Rita Donaghy said: “These results are worrying as they highlight a potential timebomb in smaller companies in terms of tribunal cases. Age discrimination can affect all employees, young and old and to comply can be very simple and quick.”

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today