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Reading uni staff to have ‘unpaid women's lunch’ to protest pay gap

WOMEN at the University of Reading will take part in an “unpaid women's non-working lunch” today in protest at unequal pay.

Campaigners, including trade unionists and student representatives, hope the lunch “gives visibility” to the pay gap.

The university has a gender pay gap of 19.6 per cent, higher than the nationwide average of 15.9 per cent in universities and significantly above the average for British employers of 9.7 per cent.

It means that, starting today, women at the university will effectively work without pay for the rest of the year.

In 2016, the university made a submission for the Athena SWAN award for equality in higher education with a commitment to increase the proportion of female staff in management and leadership positions and to narrow the gender pay gap for all grades to less than 5 per cent by 2020.

The University and College Union (UCU) said the university should also pledge to make additional payments to female members of staff if the gender pay gap is not reduced to 5 per cent by the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

In 2016, the University of Essex gave female professors a one-off payment to close a gender pay gap.

UCU rep Karin Lesnik-Oberstein said: “The University of Reading has a significant section of its workforce that is effectively working for free until the end of the year.

“We will be ensuring management cannot ignore its women staff with our lunchtime protest.”

The main reason cited to explain gender pay gaps is that there are fewer women in top positions.

Although women make up 54 per cent of total staff in British universities, only 31 per cent of senior managers and just a quarter of professors are women.

The University of Reading told the Star that it supports the right to peaceful, lawful protest and has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.

A spokesperson said it has implemented a number of initiatives designed to “help further the progression of women” to more senior positions within the university and has ambitious targets to go further by 2020.

The protest will take place on the lawn outside Whiteknights House, the institution’s main administration building, from 1pm.

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