Equal pay case to boost salaries for women managers in NHS

The case will increase pressure to include senior managers in the Agenda for Change pay system talks, and reinforces evidence of pay discrepancies at trust board level.

An out-of-court settlement of the claim from former South West regional nursing director Margaret Buttigieg includes an agreement 'to investigate how the NHS Executive determines the salary levels of its senior women managers, and whether as a result of the methods used. . . there is an in-built discrepancy between the salaries of women compared to men'.

Ms Buttigieg claimed equal pay with senior male staff at South West regional office. Salary levels were determined by the civil service JESP job evaluation scheme that applies to NHS Executive employees. All three men earned over£15,000 more than her.

She will receive an undisclosed cash award - believed to be a five figure sum - as part of the settlement, negotiated by health union MSF. The union's head of health, Roger Kline, said: 'This agreement drives a coach and horses through the current pay arrangements for all staff at regional offices of the NHS and elsewhere in the NHS Executive.'

The case showed that the current arrangements 'cannot withstand equal-pay challenges'.

Ms Buttigieg, who now carries out consultancy work for NHS organisations, said she was pleased with the settlement. 'But I am more pleased about the inquiry and what that means for women.'

MSF regional officer Patrick Canavan, who negotiated the settlement, said the employers' side had agreed to the salary structure review 'early on', after the union presented a detailed analysis of how the JESP system had been applied to Ms Buttigieg and three comparators: 'One of the comparators was actually on the same evaluation score, but was paid a lot more, 'Mr Canavan said. 'That made them sit up and think we might have a point.'

He described the salary variations revealed as 'quite extraordinary'. The system for determining pay seemed 'completely arbitrary', and lacked transparency.

Mr Kline said the agreement would 'end any suggestion that senior staff in the NHS at board level should be excluded from Agenda for Change discussions.

'There is plenty of evidence that senior female staff such as nursing directors are paid less than male trust board directors with similar responsibilities.'

The Department of Health would only say it was 'considering the settlement'. But NHS Confederation human resources policy director Andrew Foster said the case would 'draw even more attention' to 'underpinning senior director and civil service pay with some degree of equity'.

The job evaluation scheme under discussion at the Agenda for Change pay talks was 'being designed to be gender-proof ', but would cover only a limited number of senior managers. Some smaller organisations could be excluded.

Mr Foster said trust and health authorities should 'look at systems for determining senior managers' pay' to ensure that they were 'gender proof and not preserving inequities' from the past.

A recent survey by Pay and Workforce Research shows that nurse directors are paid between£48,000 and£60,000 a year, while finance directors - the majority of them men - receive£52,000 to£65,000. Pay and Workforce Research director John Northrop said senior managers, including chief executives, 'have got to be included' in the Agenda for Change evaluation scheme 'because of equal value'.