NUJ kicks off equal pay campaign online

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A new campaign to promote equal gender pay within the media was launched by

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) yesterday.

It coincided with the Fawcett Society's Women's No Pay Day, which each year aims to draw attention to a 17 per cent gender pay gap. It is the 'day when women receive their last payslip of the year and begin working for free', the society says.

The NUJ is hoping the campaign will raise awareness of the equal pay situation and put pressure on the UK government to improve the provisions of the Equal Pay Act.

Numerous features are now on the NUJ website, including a history of the pay gap in the workplace spanning 90 years, interviews with women who have gained sufficient equal pay victories and an explanatory section on equal pay. The union is trying to raise awareness by contacting all union representatives. The Independent newspaper has given the campaign its backing and issued its own survey to employees, helping them monitor the extent of the pay gap in their workplace.

"In 1918 the NUJ struck its first equal pay deal when Fleet Street proprietors agreed to the principle of equal pay for equal work," said NUJ deputy general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, in a release.

"It's shocking that 90 years on we're still having to campaign around such basic ideas. The union has won thousands of pounds in back pay and wage increases for many of our women members, but we need employers to take action to abolish this discrimination in the first place.

"It's simply not acceptable for big media companies to wait until people threaten legal action before doing something as simple as paying men and women the same rate for the job," she said.

The campaign would be ongoing, Stephen Pearse, senior campaigns and communications officer for the NUJ told Journalism.co.uk.

"The issue of equal pay in the workplace has always been a big issue. Our campaign will continue to run until the issue has been resolved,” he said.