Gender Pay Gap Report 18/19

Employers with 250 or more employees are now legally required to publish, on an annual basis, certain information relating to their gender pay gap. This statement sets out the relevant information for National Tyre Service Limited, for the period 2018 reporting in 2019. This information has been calculated in accordance with the requirements of the gender pay gap regulations. We have also included in this statement more detailed information beyond that which is legally required to be published to help explain our overall approach to pay and equality.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average pay of men and women, expressed as a percentage. The gender pay gap is different from equal pay. Equal pay is concerned with pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.

Nationally, the gender pay gap has persisted for many years — while the gap has been closing, overall progress has been and remains, very slow. The size of the gap varies between the private, public and voluntary sectors, by different types of businesses/services and by other factors, such as the age of employees. The Government has introduced these new reporting requirements to try and improve the rate of progress in closing this pay gap.

There are many factors which contribute to, or cause, a gender pay gap and these will vary between different employers. Some relate to wider society, such as the type of career choices men and women have typically tended to make and some may be specific to the particular organisation. We have set out in this statement the main factors we consider are contributing to our gender pay gap.

National Tyre Service Limited (trading as National Tyres and Autocare), part of Axle Group Holdings Limited (the “Group”), is an independent fast fit specialist in the UK. Its technicians specialise in vehicle parts repair including tyres, exhausts, brakes, batteries, steering and suspension, lubrication, MOT testing and vehicle safety inspection. We have a network of 239 branches throughout the UK. National Tyres and Autocare employs 1174 personnel.

National Tyre Service Limited’s sister company (which is also in the Group) Stepgrades Motor Accessories Limited (trading as Viking Wholesale Tyres) is an independent tyre wholesaler, operating form nine warehouses throughout the UK. Viking Wholesale Tyres employs 229 personnel

Senior Management within each company have Group responsibilities.

National Tyre Service Limited aims to be a fair and progressive employer and is committed to tackling inequality and promoting diversity. Its employment arrangements comply with all relevant equality legislation and codes of practice.

National Tyre Service Limited’s pay arrangements aim to fairly reward staff contribution and performance, taking into account economic/financial considerations, organisational and individual performance and the pay rates of similar roles in the wider economy.

Bonus payments are made to staff within certain positions.

The mean gender pay gap

This figure shows the difference between the mean (average) hourly rate of pay of male and female employees in the relevant pay period, as a percentage.

Our mean gender pay gap is 9.3%

The median gender pay gap

This figure shows the difference between the median (mid point) hourly rate of pay of male and female employees in the relevant pay period, as a percentage.

Our median gender pay gap is 15.4%

We consider the main reasons for/causes of the above gaps are the Fast Fit industry is predominately male. The majority of our staff work within the branch network and management within this part of the business is wholly male. However head office functions tend to be more evenly split between male and female and this is true of senior management positions. Due to the joint Group functions of senior management, many of our senior female managers work for Viking Wholesale Tyres. Within Viking Wholesale Tyres there is a negative mean and median pay gap.

The mean bonus gender pay gap

This figure shows the difference between the mean (average) bonus pay of the male and female employees in the relevant bonus period, as a percentage.

Our mean bonus gender pay gap is 26.3%

The median bonus gender pay gap

This figure shows the difference between the median (mid point) bonus pay of male and female employees in the relevant bonus period, as a percentage.

Our median bonus gender pay gap is 47.8%.

We consider the main reasons for/causes of the above gaps are due to the high percentage of males within the operational management of the Company. These positions have the opportunity to earn greater bonus payments in comparison to head office roles, which although these do attract a bonus payment, the amount of bonus potential is of a lower value. The head office roles are where the majority of our female staff work. Again within our sister company Viking Wholesale Tyres, there is a negative mean bonus gap and there is no median bonus gap.

These figures show the proportions of male and female employees who received bonus pay during the relevant period.

95% of male employees and 92% of female employees received a bonus payment in the relevant period.

Quartile pay band Male number Female number Total number Male % Female %
Lower 244 41 285 85.6 14.4
Lower middle 274 10 284 96.5 3.5
Upper middle 280 5 285 98.2 1.8
Upper 269 15 284 94.7 5.3
Total 1067 71 1138 93.8 6.2

As an industry Fast Fit is predominately dominated by males. All senior managers within the operational divisions of the company are male and therefore a higher proportion of males than females within the company are in senior positions. The percentage of females within the company is 6.2%, the percentage of females in more senior positions is 5.3% therefore the percentage of females in more senior roles is reflective of the percentage of females within the Company. Although National Tyres and Autocare have promoted the inclusion of women within our branch network, especially through our Apprenticeship programme, the percentage of women working within this sector of the business remains extremely small. It is traditionally seen as a male job; however we are starting to see a greater interest in females wanting to carry out mechanical roles. Out with the Operational Divisions, females are more evenly represented in senior roles within the Company. As a Group, Axle has a high proportion of females in Senior Management roles. As some of these females in senior roles are employed by our sister company Viking Wholesale Tyres, their salaries and bonuses have not been taken in to account when calculating National Tyres and Autocare Pay Gap statistics. However Viking Wholesale Tyres, although not legally obliged to carry out Gender Pay Gap reporting have carried out this exercise and this shows a negative mean and medium gap in hourly rate of pay. In addition there is a negative pay gap in relation to mean bonus gap and no medium bonus pay gap.

We are committed to closing our pay gaps. We will be carrying out the following action to try and address this problem.

• Review pay and bonus practices to ensure that they are applied fairly and equitably
• Carrying out a review of recruitment practices to try and recruit more females into mechanical roles within the business which are currently under represented by females.
• Continue to develop our work with schools and colleges and review how we can attract more females to the industry through the work experience opportunities that we provide
• Continue in our commitment to offer the same development and training opportunities to both male and female within the business
• Review flexible working policies in order to attract more females to work within the industry

 

Lesley Dalziel
Chief Financial Officer
28th March 2019

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