Clause 42 - Equal pay: questionnaires
Employment Bill
9:30 am
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
It is highly likely that a tribunal would look at that in such a way. Employees can say to the employer, ''I don't want details of my pay to be given to anybody else.'' We will not cater for that situation in the way that the hon. Gentleman suggests, but will point out in the regulations that the public interest test means that confidential information will not be disclosed unless it is germane to sex discrimination, because that is inherent in the common law of duty of confidentiality.
If an individual asked the employer not to give such information, the employer would take that seriously.
Nevertheless, where he believes it is a public interest case, the employer could still disclose the information. It is a matter for his judgment. If an employee asked about the pay of someone in a different grade doing different work who could not possibly be compared to him—making a fishing expedition just to find out how much the colleague earned, in other words—the employer could confidently say that no public interest was involved and refuse to provide the information.