The firm in charge of Fox's Biscuits has vowed to do more to help women take on senior management roles after revealing male workers are paid nearly 10 per cent more than female employees.
The Sisters Food Group has published its Gender Pay Gap report in line with Government requirements - and it shows a 9.7 per cent average difference between men and women.
The firm's owner says this is down to more men than women filling the top jobs.
However, 2 Sisters bosses have launched a range of initiatives to help women get into management roles.
They also highlighted the fact that men and women with similar levels of experience were paid equally for doing similar roles and factory floor pay was comparable with average manufacturing sector pay.
According to a 2 Sisters spokesman, the firm's new schemes are:
- Senior managerial-level support: taking active steps to facilitate flexible and, or, part-time working and 'family-friendly' policies for senior management level colleagues to help improve work-life balance and support those with caring responsibilities;
- Positive targets: 30 per cent of senior leadership roles (executive level or above) to be occupied by women by 2021;
- Learning: A programme of sponsored MBA scholarships, available to female and male applicants, with the objective of improving leadership opportunities for women across the sector;
- Mentoring: The launch of a 2 Sisters Food Group 'women in leadership' mentoring programme. Members of the senior management team will mentor and help build a talent pool of women at our business so they are ready to move into senior management positions;
- Recruitment : Insisting that recruiters always provide balanced shortlists with the inclusion of female candidates as well as those from a range of backgrounds;
- Internal opportunity: Ensuring all internal shortlists have at least one female candidate;
- Measure: Establishing a set of metrics to regularly monitor our diversity performance and report externally on an annual basis.
Ranjit Singh, president of Boparan Holdings Limited, owner of 2 Sisters Food Group, said: "I am interested in creating a real culture change on opportunity at our business that will lead the industry.
"We need to create an environment that works for all employees, both male and female.
"If we do this, we will see more women succeeding in senior management roles.
"I’m really proud of the extraordinary diversity at 2 Sisters Food Group and I’m determined that we should do everything we can to make ourselves a company where anyone can do well, regardless of their gender.
"These values mean that we always pay our men and women equally for doing the same role with the same level of experience.
"Unfortunately, like many other companies in our sector and the UK, we have more men than women in senior roles and this is what is driving our current gender pay gap.
"So today we have unveiled a series of initiatives designed to tackle this gap at the senior managerial levels of the organisation to ensure women are better represented and have a stronger voice, and I look forward to seeing solid progress as our new strategy beds in."
The national average pay gap is 18.4 per cent.
