Equal pay campaigner recalls win 25 years on

It is 25 years since then 54-year-old grandmother Rene Pickstone and the ‘Freemans Five’ secured a landmark tribunal victory which ruled that it was illegal for Freemans to pay men more than women for doing a different job of the same value.

The victory came after an eight year struggle.

To mark the occasion the Peterborough Telegraph spoke to Rene, who worked at the catalogue shopping warehouse which was based in Ivatt Way, Westwood, for 40 years until shutting in 2009.

Rene (79), who now lives in Stanground, said: “You have to stick with these things - the law is there to be used and use it we did.”

Rene packed goods, but discovered she was being paid £4 a week less than the men unloading the lorries.

She recalled: “I thought ‘that does not seem right’.”

Rene was then flicking through a women’s magazine when she read there was a government issued booklet available on equal pay.

She said: “I took it to the union. They looked into it and went to Freemans and asked for equal value pay. They said ‘no’. I said ‘we will put it in a tribunal’.

“Five of us did that - we went to different tribunals and kept getting knocked back.

“My union officers kept saying ‘we have to carry on, don’t dishearten’. I said I wanted to keep going on.”

An industrial tribunal initially ruled the case should not be heard, but the High Court and House of Lords decided to send the case back to the tribunal, which then ruled in favour of the women. Rene said: “I thought ‘at last somebody has had a bit of common sense to see what we are on about’. It was a relief really.”

The other women involved in the struggle were Rita Roberts, Aggie Hepburn, Jean Woolner and Elaine Fyffe, with Elaine reaching a private settlement with Freemans.

The women were supported by the Transport and General Workers’ Union.

Rene said she was not ostracised by Freemans, but a Daily Telegraph article from 1993 highlights the difficulties she had when applying for another job, with the interviewer telling her: ‘Oh, I know who you are’.”

The Freemans Five were recently showcased in a play by Eastern Angles called ‘All Wrapped Up in Westwood’. Artistic Director Ivan Cutting said the tribunal verdict has “gone down in legal history and is still cited as a major plank in the road to equal pay.”

Rene said she was “overwhelmed” to watch the play. Asked for her thoughts on the disparity of pay between men and women now, in particular at the BBC, she added: “The women there should fight and make sure they do get much the same as the men.”