Nottinghamshire’s fire service gender pay gap has reduced, but more women are needed in senior roles to encourage others to climb the ladder.
A Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service meeting on Friday (8 November) heard there is growing parity across job roles, but not enough women work in management positions.
Fire service papers reveal about 82 per cent of the organisation’s total workforce are men, or 602 out of 735.
Of the 133 women working for the organisation, 63 per cent are in support and office-based roles – with just 11 per cent in wholetime firefighting roles.
Data also shows that, on average, male employees across the organisation earn £19.07 per hour, compared with £18.11 for all female staff members.
File image
That’s a gender pay gap of 5.05 per cent over the 12 months to April this year.
However, the organisation says this is down from the 12.53 per cent gap for the same period the year before.
It also says that, overall, its figures do not suggest women are paid less than men for completing the same job, but rather that a higher number of male employees occupy senior positions across each area of the workforce.
In the meeting, Leila Berry, area manager and head of people and organisational development, spoke of the barriers impacting the pay gap.
This included misunderstandings with on-call rotas and the low number of females in senior roles.
She said: “Because [a low percentage] of our operational workforce are women, there is a challenge with role-modelling. You can’t be what you can’t see.
“What we do see is women will sit in a role longer before they go for promotion. Some of that, I think, is a confidence issue and the impact of being under-represented in the workforce.”
The service has set out actions to further reduce the gap, such as encouraging more women to apply for wholetime and on-call firefighter roles, identifying women with progression potential, and providing more flexible contracts.
Chair of the meeting, Councillor Audra Wynter (Lab), asked about the timeline for these actions.
In response, Ms Berry said: “We set ourselves a longer-term goal over the next eight to 10 years to really make strides in diversification.
“Some of that is bringing in more of that representation at entry level, helping colleagues to progress within the organisation – there’s not one quick fix.”
Mick Sharman, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, spoke of the double-edged sword in the service’s workforce.
He said: “One of the things we do talk about is one of our strengths, which is our retention of staff. We’re really proud that people work for us for a significant period of time, good levels for operational and support staff, which should be celebrated.
“At the same time, it’s also a challenge in terms of turnover of staff to get new people in to diversify the workforce so we can better represent our communities.”
• Severn Trent workers tell how they saved woman who fell into river
