Five-year equal pay dispute is set to end (From This Is Lancashire)

Five-year equal pay dispute is set to end

11:30am Saturday 11th February 2012 in News

A FIVE-year equal pay wrangle, which has cost more than half a million pounds in legal bills, is set to end.

Bury Council and the biggest town hall union, Unison, have reached an historic agreement, covering 943 claims from current and former council employees.

The women, who undertook jobs such as cleaning and cooking, were paid less than their male colleagues for doing work of equivalent value.

The council payout runs into millions of pounds, but no total figure has been disclosed.

Hailing the agreement, Unison branch secretary Steve Morton said: “Nearly 1,000 low paid women council workers are now a big step closer to the pay justice they deserve. It is the year 2012, more than 40 years after the Equal Pay Act, and women should have the right to expect fairness.”

Council leader, Cllr Mike Connolly said: “ I hope that these settlement offers will be accepted and that we can now move on and work together, as we always have, for the good of Bury and its people.”

The agreement finally draws a line under the prolonged equal pay saga which has cost Bury Council around £662,000 in legal costs. Bury was the first local authority targeted by Unison with mass litigation for equal pay in 2007.

In February last year, an Employment Appeals Tribunal upheld a 2009 decision that hundreds of mainly low-paid women employees were entitled to compensation for all the years they were paid less than male council workers doing comparable jobs. Bury Council had claimed the men were paid more because of a genuine material factor, rather than because of the workers’ sex.

But weeks after the Appeals Tribunal ruling, women had their hopes of an imminent pay-out dashed when the council announced it was lodging another appeal against the decision.

Cllr Connolly added: “A joint application with Unison will be made to the Court of Appeal to defer the appeal hearing scheduled for March, thus saving further legal costs.”

Commenting on the settlement, he added: “We have worked with the trade unions to reach an agreement that is fair to current and former employees and also good value for the Bury taxpayer, whose money we have a duty to safeguard.

“At this moment, I cannot disclose the amounts of money involved. There are still outstanding claims to be progressed with other claimants who are either not represented or represented by firms other than solicitors who represent the Unison claimants.”

The council has already settled 672 claims and a further 138, not represented by Unison, are still outstanding.

Unison regional manager Steve Stott said: “We are pleased that the council has at last accepted its responsibility to treat its women workers fairly. Most of the women’s claims were first lodged in 2007 and for nearly five years the council has been wasting precious public money trying to defend the indefensible.”