The introduction of performance-related pay into the civil and public service could increase the pay gap between men and women, the Irish Congress of Trade Union's (ICTU) warned today.
Experience showed that performance-related pay and appraisal systems exacerbated the gender pay gap, Ms Mags O'Brien told the annual conference of the IMPACT trade union in Kilkenny.
She urged public sector employers to be wary of embracing performance-related pay systems adding that such a system introduced in the UK revenue commissioners' office had been suspended because it showed gender bias.
When women are assessed for performance-related pay they tend to receive lower ratings on average than men, and a lower proportion of the highest category of rating, she said.
Ms O'Brien outlined a number of possible reasons for the gender pay gap, including occupational segregation, subject choices in schools, and the fact that women spend long periods outside the workforce because of family and caring commitments.
- Last week, it was announced that more than 5,000 mostly female civil servants would receive about €6,000 each from the State in €34 million settlement of a 1991 equal pay claim. The deal, struck between the Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) and the Department of Finance is the biggest equal pay claim conceded in the history of the State.