Farage’s plan for equal pay legislation may cost female workers money, say unions | Politics

Unions have said that Nigel Farage’s proposed law to “strengthen women’s rights” could cost female workers dearly due to the removal of equal pay for equal work.

A proposal by Reform UK days before the Makerfield by-election to introduce the Women and Maternity Protection Act, which it said would restore equality before the law, has been described as “shameless and deceptive”.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) says the new policy, which will replace the Equality Act 2010, will throw into doubt the right to equal pay for jobs that require different but similar levels of skill, effort and responsibility.

A number of payments required by the Equality Act were made. More than 3,500 workers at clothing store Next won a six-year battle after an employment tribunal ruled in 2024 that store staff, who are mostly women, should not be paid lower wages than workers in warehouses where just over half the staff are men.

Under Reform UK’s plan, Farage’s party has proposed that women’s rights be better protected by laws made in the 1970s and 1990s. He said the Equal Pay Act 1970 ensured that men and women received the same pay for the same work, and the Employment Rights Act 1996 guaranteed parental leave rights and protection against unfair dismissal.

The party also said the new law would increase the time limit for pregnancy and maternity claims for unfair dismissal from three months to 12 months.

“The Reform UK government will be the most pro-woman, pro-mother and pro-family government in modern British history,” the party said in a press release after its Makerfield candidates were criticized for weeks for past comments about women.

The party added: “While women retain the right to receive the same pay for the same work, it will ensure that equal pay legislation focuses on genuine cases of pay discrimination rather than allowing courts to determine the relative value of fundamentally different occupations.”

Regarding the extension of the period for pregnancy and maternity claims due to unfair dismissal, the party claimed that “new mothers should focus on their children, not on paperwork, and no woman should lose her legal rights just because she spent the first months of her motherhood as a mother.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said there were “serious questions to be answered” about whether the Reform would uphold the principle of equal pay for equal work and described comments about motherhood as dismissive.

“Let’s call this out for what it is: a smokescreen that eliminates women’s rights and makes life difficult for families,” Nowak said. “Shameless and deceptive.

“If Reform really stood for women, the party wouldn’t have committed to tearing up the Equality Act, which effectively legalized discrimination. It wouldn’t have promised to repeal new rights introduced by the Employment Rights Act, such as protection from harassment.

“And they wouldn’t dismiss their own candidate’s blatant misogyny as mere childish banter. Equating women’s success with motherhood is arrogant, outdated and patently wrong.”

“All women, mothers or not, are at risk from the Reform government, which wants to turn back the clock. The party can never be trusted on women’s rights.”

Asking women to be grateful for half a century of protections is “frustrating and offensive,” Nowak said.

Voters in Makerfield will go to the polls on Thursday and Andy Burnham’s electoral and prime ministerial prospects will be questioned by rival Reform candidate Robert Kenyon, who has been accused of making offensive comments about women on social media.

An account linked to Kenyon wrote that women “can’t referee, drive or give directions” and stated: “I’m sexist, I’m sorry, but I am.”

Kenyon also admitted to making “rude comments” about television presenter Carol Vorderman. Farage dismissed the comments as “laddish pub talk”.