The president of the National Association of Women Pharmacists has urged pharmacy employers to publish their reports on gender pay gaps as soon as possible following the Equality and Human Rights Commission's decision to delay enforcement action.

Naina Chotai said it was important employers do not wait until the EHRC's new deadline of October 5 to publish their data for 2019-20 when enforcement action is expected to kick in. The Covid pandemic had forced action to be suspended in March last year.

“Singling out equality reporting as something that can be delayed gives the message that equality is not as important as other workplace issues. We disagree. Equality isn’t an optional extra, it should be at the core of how organisations work,” she said.

“Efforts to remove inequality from the workplace should always be a priority and employers should not delay publishing their reports along with any plans they have to improve equality.”

Employers with 250 employees or more, including private and voluntary sector and listed public sector employers, must publish their gender pay gap data each year.