Trade union delegates from north and south of the border consider the inequality of pay between male and female workers.
1975 was UN International Women’s Year. In Ireland, equal pay legislation was due to come into effect at the end of the year. But the road to equalisation was a complicated one, as 'Seven Days' discovered when it went to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions conference in Cork. Here a number of delegates from trade unions in the north and south of Ireland discuss progress made in each jurisdiction.
One factory worker points out that it's not simply a matter of pay. While their highest female grade was only three pence less than the lowest male grade, the women saw themselves as more skilled because they were machinists.
As for the Irish public service:
In 1969, the difference between the all-female grade called clerical assistants and the marriage-differentiated scale, called clerical officers, was only £5. Yet due to national wage agreeements and with the progress towards equal pay of the clerical officers, there was no similar progress towards equal pay in the all-female grade, with the result that on the 1st of June 1975, the difference between the all-female grade and the clerical officers is now £16.
This episode of 'Seven Days' was broadcast on 11 July 1975. The reporter is Patrick Gallagher.
