It has been reported that Government Equalities Office (‘GEO’) has confirmed that Gender Pay Gap (‘GPG’) reporting requirements to apply to “employees” in the wider sense, as defined by the Equality Act 2010 (‘EqA’), which may include some agency workers.

Essentially, GPG reporting requirements mean that businesses with more than 250 “relevant employees” will be required to publish their GPG information on their website, confirming in a statement the accuracy of such information. That is, report on the levels of pay and bonuses paid out within its organisation, with reference to gender (click here for previous article). However, it has been previously thought that this would be limited to an organisation’s actual employees.

The wide definition of employment in the EqA covers any individual that works under a contract of employment, a contract of apprenticeship or a contract personally to do work provided that they are subject to UK legislation, and ordinarily working in the UK. This would usually include: – Casual workers – Bank staff engaged directly – Workers engaged under umbrella contracts – Workers engaged under zero hours contracts – Some self-employed contractors – LLP members – PAYE temps

If the reported intention of the GEO is correct and anyone falling within this wider definition is to be included in the 250 “relevant employees”, it is far more likely that a recruiter will need to comply with this obligation. Recruiter SME’s may not have 250 actual employees, but may be engaging and supplying that number of agency workers. The wider definition does not however mean that a hirer will have to take into account any PAYE temps supplied to it by an employment business.

The detail of the GPG reporting requirements will be included within the draft Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2016 (‘the Regulations’). The Regulations have yet to be updated to cover this point, however it is expected that they will address both this wider definition, and provide clarification on some other aspects of the reporting requirements.

The GPG requirements will be addressed within the webinar “April 2016 Changes Affecting Recruiters” click here to find out more.

Should you require any advice on this area, including what needs to be covered in the GPG report and any specific deadlines, please contact Lawspeed on 01273 236 236 or if you are an ARC member with access to the legal helpline call 01273 777 997 and we also have our guidance notes for ARC members here.