'A victory for common sense!' Bosses now forced to use their staff’s biological sex in declaring gender pay gap

Around 10,000 major employers face a legal requirement to report the average difference in earnings between male and female staff.

Previously, these firms were permitted to categorise staff as male or female based on how employees personally identified.

A Government insider explained: "We're working flat out to update gender pay gap guidance in line with the Supreme Court ruling so that employers can have clarity around what is expected of them.

“While some want to play politics with these issues, Ministers are pushing to get on with the job of implementing the ruling, pushing for common sense solutions that put the law into practice."

The source continued: "This government is crystal clear on the importance of single sex spaces and women's empowerment, while ensuring dignity and respect for everyone."

Within the guidance, employers are instructed to handle these matters with care regarding how staff members identify themselves, The Sun reports.

"It is important for you to be sensitive to how an employee identifies their gender," the guidance warned.

It also notes: "The gender pay gap regulations do not define the terms 'men' and 'women'."

Bosses are also advised not to single out individual workers to interrogate them about their gender.

The guidance further clarifies those who do not identify as either male or female may be omitted from the calculations entirely.

"If an employee does not self-identify as either gender, you can exclude them from your calculations," it added.

While the new guidance appears to be a departure from gender ideology, the Labour-run Wandsworth Borough Council has gained attention for implementing pronoun declarations at meetings.

The south London authority is additionally urging employees to display gender-neutral pronoun options, including "ze/zir/zem", on their email signatures and social media accounts.

A leaked memo argued that members of non-binary and transgender communities need to be "more seen and recognised" through workplace practices.

According to the document, most people were previously only familiar with "he/him/his" and "she/her/hers" as pronoun options.

"As the non-binary community has become more visible, more people are becoming aware of non-gendered pronouns such as they/them/theirs and ze/zir/zem," the memo states.

The guidance describes incorporating pronouns into email signatures, Microsoft 365 profiles and social media accounts as a "simple step cisgender people can take" in the workplace.

However, the guidance has prompted sharp criticism from women's rights organisations, who argue it could amount to discrimination against workers who reject gender identity ideology.

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