Old Square Chambers held an event to celebrate International Women’s Day 2020 and the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act 1970 entitled ‘Ijeoma Omambala in conversation with Tess Gill and Heather Wakefield‘ on Tuesday 10th March 2020.
Following successful careers in the trade union movement and as a solicitor Tess Gill was a member of Old Square Chambers between 1990 and 2008. At the bar Tess was a leading practitioner in the field of equal pay acting for thousands of women in numerous cases such as: Cammell Laird Shipbuilders v Hayward, Wilson v HSE, North Cumbria NHS v Potter, Cumbria County Council v Dow, Cadman v HSC, Bailey v Home Office and Allonby v Accrington & Rosendale College
Heather Wakefield was Head of UNISON’s Local Government, Police and Justice section before retiring in 2018. In that capacity she oversaw the implementation of the Single Status agreement reached in 1997. She was a member of the Low Pay Commission for nine years. Currently Heather is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Greenwich, working on an EU-funded project on the gender pay gap and is Chair of Maternity Action. She is also a member of the Local Government 2030 Commission established by the Association of Public Service Excellence.
