Gender Pay Gap Report 2024

Thistle Seafoods Ltd

Gender Pay Gap Report 2024

Introduction

All UK organisations with over 250 employees are now required by law to carry out annual Gender Pay Reporting under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.  The report details a Company’s Gender Pay and Bonus Gaps; the percentage of men and women receiving a bonus; and the proportions of men and women in each pay quartile of the workforce.

An employer must publish six calculations showing their:

• Average gender pay gap as a mean average.
• Average gender pay gap as a median average.
• Average bonus gender pay gap as a mean average.
• Average bonus gender pay gap as a median average.
• Proportion of males receiving a bonus payment and proportion of females receiving a bonus payment.
• Proportion of males and females when divided into four groups ordered from lowest to highest pay.

These calculations are based on figures drawn from a specific date each year. This is called the ‘snapshot date’.  The snapshot date for businesses and charities is the 5th April.

It is important to know that the Gender Pay Gap is not the same as Equal Pay, and it exists in most organisations.

Equal Pay means that men and women performing equal work should generally receive equal pay.

Gender Pay Gap is the difference between men’s and women’s average hourly pay across an organisation, expressed as a percentage, and it is reported as a mean average and median average (mid-point) figure.

Some of the reported reasons for why a Gender Pay Gap exists are as follows:

• Women are often under-represented in senior roles where remuneration is higher.
• Women are more likely to take time out of their careers to start a family or have carer responsibilities; the gap typically widens when women reach the age of 40.
• Some sectors have a higher proportion of part-time roles e.g. health, retail and social care, commonly resulting in a higher proportion of women in entry level roles.
• Educational choices where fewer women work in STEM sectors – science, technology, engineering and mathematics, leading to fewer women in higher-paid specialist roles such as Finance, IT, Engineering and Logistics.

Our 2024 Reported Figures

Comparison between 2023 and 2024

Understanding our Gender Pay Gap

On the 5th April 2024 Thistle Seafoods employed 552 members of staff, 327 were male and 225 were female.  The majority worked full time, with only one male member of staff working part-time. 

Quartiles

The table above indicates that males dominate the middle-upper and upper quartiles.  When looking into the data in more detail, 60% of males in the middle-upper quartile and 80% of males in the upper quartile are employed in our stores, engineering, chilled coding palletising, hygiene and sauce plant departments.  If the individuals in these departments were removed from the middle-upper and upper quartiles there would be a considerable reduction in the gap between male and females in these quartiles, as shown in the table below.

Bonus

There were no bonuses awarded to staff.

Summary

As noted in previous years, the skew of our Gender Pay Gap is caused by our stores, engineering, chilled coding palletising, hygiene and sauce plant departments, being heavily dominated by males.  The table below shows the split between male and females in each department.

The roles within these departments require employees to be willing to undertake some or all of the following: be able to lift weights up to 25kg; be willing to work in very cold conditions (up to -20°C); be physically capable of doing manual handling for the majority of the 8 – 12 hour shift; be willing to work in a wet environment; and be willing to work unsociable hours.  Vacancies within these departments are advertise both internally and externally and they continue to attract more male applicants than female applicants.  It is unclear why; however, it could be due to the requirements of the role and the working environment.

With regards to engineering, during the snapshot period (6th April 2023 to 5th April 2024) we had 74 individuals applied for a position within our engineering department.  None of which were female.  We did not do a 2023 intake of engineering apprentices, so there was not an opportunity to introduce females to the engineering department via this route. 

Nevertheless, between 2023 and 2024 we have managed to increase the number of females in our middle upper and upper quartiles.  This is due to the acquisition of another site, and the required for additional supervisors and chargehands within our production, chilled coding and quality assurance teams, and the requirement for more quality assurers and hygiene cleaners.  These positions were advertised both internally and externally and eight females were successful in being placed into a chargehand or supervisor role, two were employed as quality assurers and two were placed in our hygiene department as hygiene cleaners.  The data indicates that all of these roles fell within the middle upper and upper quartiles, and this has aided in reducing the mean gender pay gap by 2.8%

Closing the Gap Further

As previously reported fewer women work in STEM sectors, and although there have been several initiatives implemented to try and encourage females into these sectors, little progress has been made.  Data from Women in STEM Statistics https://www.stemwomen.com/women-in-stem-percentages-of-women-in-stem-statistics report a year on year increase in the number of females in STEM sectors, however, there is still considerable work to be done before it is at the same level as the number of males, as shown in the below table. Unfortunately, there is no data available to show how this percentage has change in 2023 and 2024.

Thistle Seafoods will continue to implement a fair recruitment process.  Internally all employees have the opportunity to apply for positions advertised, and they are encouraged to do so.  We provide extensive training to aid staff development, and to provide opportunities to those who might not currently have the necessary skills, experience, or qualifications but have a desire to progress.  With regards to external candidates, we use a variety of recruitment methods such as: attending careers fairs; advertising on our company website and social media sites, and across job boards such as Indeed and Glassdoor; and we use approved recruitment agencies.  The same screening process is applied to all applications, candidates participate in the same selection process, and we employ the candidate most suitable for the role.

Approval for this statement

This statement was approved by the Board of Directors on 31st March 2025.

Pamela Macdougall

31st March 2025