The Ford & Slater 2023 Gender Pay Gap Annual Report dated 4th April 2024

The table above shows our overall mean and median gender pay gap based on hourly rates of pay as at the snapshot date (i.e. 5th April 2023).

The gender pay gap – calculated on the mean and median measures –as at the snapshot date (5th April 2023) increased slightly in comparison with the prior year when the differences equalled 25.4% and 26.4%, respectively.

The Gender Pay Gap Reporting also captures the mean and median difference between bonuses paid to men and women at Ford & Slater in the year ended 5th April 2023 mainly in respect of the 2022 financial year.

Proportion of male employees awarded a bonus during year to April 2023:

Proportion of female employees awarded a bonus during year to April 2023:

The data above highlights that a similar proportion of male and female employees received a bonus payment during the year ended 5th April 2023, this is because the proportion of female employees that received a bonus payment during the year ended 5th April 2023 increased from 24% to 34%.

In relation to male employees, 36% received a bonus payment during the year ended 5th April 2023; a higher proportion in comparison with 2022 (34%).

The above pay structure is mainly a function of the following key factors:

• The company operates in the male-dominated transport sector;
• Efficiency bonuses are available to certain HGV technicians if they complete their work task in a shorter time period than normally allowed by the truck manufacturer; and
• The majority of management positions that include membership of the company annual bonus scheme are occupied by male employees with engineering expertise obtained from working as an HGV Technician or relevant parts background.

The company is confident that men and women are paid equal amounts for doing equivalent jobs across our business.

The above charts illustrate the gender distribution across four equally sized quartiles, each containing 159 employees.  The key points to note are as follows:

• In the Lowest Quartile 1 male employees are being paid at average hourly rates that are (5.1)% lower than female employees.
• Within Quartile 2 male employees are being paid at average hourly rates that are (1.6%) lower than female employees. 
• These two lower quartiles include male school leavers that join the company as apprentice HGV technicians/bodybuilders and parts apprentices– the company makes a very significant investment in their apprenticeship training (in terms of direct cost, study leave and supervision).  The hourly pay rates for these young men reflects they are being paid whilst learning their trade
• Within Quartile 3 male employees are being paid at average hourly rates that are 2.2% higher than female employees i.e. very similar; it should be noted that this includes only a small number of female staff
• In the highest quartile (Quartile 4) there remain only a small proportion of women in the most senior company positions; in particular, all the Company Directors remain male.

Overall Summary

At the outset, the company is committed to building a diverse and committed workplace that gives equal opportunities to all employees, irrespective of their gender.

The HGV repair sector is unsurprisingly male-dominated and, as at the calculation date, the workforce gender breakdown was 82% male employees with below 20% of the workforce comprising female staff members.

A significant proportion of the gender pay gap arises because (a) the majority of senior management positions are occupied by male employees with an engineering background gained from their prior experience as an HGV Technician or relevant HGV parts background; and (b) revenue-generating roles fixing trucks still tend to be occupied by male staff members that work anti-social shift patterns incl. roadside/mobile repairs and require physical stamina– these skills remain desirable and demand higher rates of pay.

The company continues to consider an action plan to reduce the gender pay gap in the workplace, including a number of positive steps to increase the proportion of female HGV Apprentice Technician.

I confirm that the data reported is accurate.

Nigel Strevens

Joint Managing Director

4th April 2024