Without the backing MSF the therapists’ union and the Equal Opportunities Commission the

Without the backing MSF, the therapists’ union, and the Equal Opportunities Commission, the battle for equal treatment would have been abandoned.The speech therapists’ claim has been through industrial tribunals, the High Court, the Court of Appeal (twice) and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg before finally returning to the Croydon tribunal this week, making it the second-longest group action for equal pay for work of equal value. The first, by women canteen workers against British Coal, was launched in 1985.The disparity between Professor Enderby’s salary and her clinical psychologist and pharmacist comparators was pounds 4,000 and pounds 7,000 respectively, but the outcome of hers and the other cases could have ramifications for other “female” professions in the health service, such as midwives, physio- therapists and occupational therapists.If only 500 of the 1,500 pending speech therapist cases are eventually won, the bill against the NHS for back pay alone would be worth up to pounds 30m.The women’s solicitor, Sara Leslie, of the Sheffield law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: “Most people assume that women carrying out work of equal value to men will be paid equally These cases prove this is not so.”. At the Frenchay Hospital, Pamela Enderby worked in clinical assessment, diagnosis and treatment and supervised other therapists. While she became aware that a pharmacist who did not supervise a department was earning considerably more than her, she was as concerned for the effect of low pay on her profession when she began her war of attrition with the NHS, writes Patricia Wynn Davies

“I want our profession to do well,” she said yesterday. “Our patients are devalued; they have no voice, so that means our profession is devalued.”
Aged 48, with the kind of reassuring presence that would inspire confidence in any patient, she left Frenchay last April to take up the post of professor of rehabilitation at Sheffield University, based at the Northern General Hospital: “I have effectively left my profession because I am a career- minded person and wanted to develop.”It takes about 12 years for a speech therapist to reach the top of his or her profession. Most receive between pounds 15,000 and pounds 19,000 and that is several thousands pounds less than a London tube driver earns.The NHS is constantly axing these highly trained therapists, Professor Enderby said. Some turn to management jobs, not only in the NHS, but with commercial firms..

Tough safety standards set by Brussels last year to eradicate BSE from gelatin are inadequate, the European Commission’s new food health watch- dog declared last night. The Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee, at its first meeting since a reshuffle of Commission responsibilities for food health to restore consumer confidence in beef, said technical treatment conditions for gelatin imposed on Britain in the wake of the mad cow crisis are no guarantee of avoiding contamination.
Conditions governing the safe production of gelatin were set by the Commission in a decision last June and involved heating requirements which should have ensured the BSE agent was destroyed. The UK was told it must meet the conditions as a prerequisite of restoring its export trade for gelatin.Last night’s decision does not affect the gelatin trade because British authorities have not informed Brussels that the requirements have been met. However, the finding is bound to lead to tougher standards being imposed, possibly pushing back even further the date on which an easing of beef export trade restrictions can begin.EU Commissioner Emma Bonino, who was given new responsibility for consumer health protection in the reshuffle, said last night that she would be urging her fellow commissioners to take account of the latest declaration of the committee in re-examining its BSE safety requirement.The committee, meeting in Brussels to begin its new task of risk evaluation in food, also decided to review the BSE safety requirements.The decision by the committee came as doctors in Britain warned that growth promoters used to produce plumper farm animals may pose a risk to humans by encouraging the spread of drug-resistant bacteria.The warning came from researchers at City Hospital, Birmingham, following a case of a man admitted to hospital after breaking his leg in an accident at a factory where chickens were packed and suffering a wound which became infected and produced a fever.Bacteria from the wound was found to be resistant to an antibiotic and a susbequent investigation discovered that the chickens at the factory had been colonised with the same antibiotic-resistant bacteria.. Scientists reacted with delight yesterday after hearing that the European Space Agency is to relaunch the Cluster mission of spacecraft to study the Sun, writes Charles Arthur.

The original launch ended in spectacular failure last June when the Ariane- 5 rocket carrying the scientific instruments blew up less than a minute after takeoff.
“This is great news,” said Professor Alan Johnstone of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who lost years of work in the explosion. “It has been a long campaign with a lot of ups and downs, but I’m happy this will happen, in the circumstances.”Apart from an abstention by Italy, the member countries of ESA agreed yesterday to buy two Russian Soyuz rockets for the launch, and to rebuild all four scientific instruments that were originally lost in the explosion. Previously, the ESA had been considering a cheaper option which would involve fewer instruments That, however, would have provided less scientific data.. Speech therapists who work in the areas of autism and dyspraxia must complete a three-year degree course and many may also have to take a masters degree in linguistics and have supervisory, managerial and teaching responsibilities, writes Patricia Wynn Davies

At the Frenchay Hospital, Pamela Enderby worked in clinical assessment, diagnosis and treatment and supervised other therapists. While she became aware that a pharmacist who did not supervise a department was earning considerably more than her, she was as concerned for the effect of low pay on her profession when she began her war of attrition against the NHS.
“I want our profession to do well,” she said yesterday.

“Our patients are devalued; they have no voice, so that means our profession is devalued.”Aged 48, with the kind of reassuring presence that would inspire confidence in any patient, she left Frenchay last April to take up the post of professor of rehabilitation at Sheffield University, based at the Northern General Hospital: “I have effectively left my profession because I am a career- minded person and wanted to develop.”It takes about 10 to 12 years for a speech therapist to reach the top of her profession and the top of the salary scale. Most receive between pounds 15,000 and pounds 19,000 and that maximum is several thousands pounds less than the pay of a London Underground train driver.The Health Service is constantly haemorrhaging these highly trained therapists, Professor Enderby said. Some turn to management jobs, not only in the NHS but with commercial firms who pay well, such as Marks & Spencer.Never did she expect her case to take 11 years But the struggle was worthwhile. “There are going to be a few more years of decisions before we feel we have really won I want to see the effects on the profession.

I was not so much motivated by pay but by how we keep people in this very valuable job.”Her solicitor, Sara Leslie, of the Sheffield firm Irwin Mitchell, said the tortuous procedure for proving equal pay for work of equal value claims was a scandal. A complaint is pending before the European Commission that the procedure is so time-consuming and expensive as to effectively deny women their legal rights.. An obsession with Take That or the Spice Girls may be innocent enough when you’re 14 years old. Carry the fixation into your twenties, however, and your teen idol can become bad for your health. Revering famous stars such as Gary Barlow, supermodel Naomi Campbell, or footballer Alan Shearer, into adulthood, increases your chance of psychological problems, eating disorders and problems forming relationships.
“It can be a way of avoiding rather than dealing with problems,” said Dr Tony Cassidy, a psychologist at Nene College, Northampton.He looked at 163 adults in a pilot study. During adolescence, three-quarters of men and women in the group, now aged between 20 and 28, said they had hero-worshipped someone.Most people throw off their fixation by their twenties, but Dr Cassidy told the annual conference of the British Psychological Society in Edinburgh that half of those who had idols could not let their feelings go.