Just as an equal pay claim made by hundreds of women at Sheffield Council has been settled out of court, Birmingham Council employees have started a one-day strike over new employment contracts.
Some 900 female Sheffield City Council staff, who include dinner ladies and care workers, were due to have their case heard at the Supreme Court next month after claiming that they were paid less than male colleagues.
Although the size of the pay-out was not disclosed, Sheffield was understood to have faced compensation payments of about £20 million if it lost its case in court. Alan Hughes, Unison’s regional manager for Yorkshire & Humberside, told the BBC that individual awards were likely to range from “a couple of hundred pounds to tens of thousands”.
But he also said that he was “disappointed” the local authority had taken three years to settle the case. “They could have settled for probably half what it is going to cost them now,” Hughes added.
Julie Toner, Sheffield’s HR director, said that the Council had undertaken an exhaustive process to reach and “amicable and positive” settlement and was “content” that the matter had been dealt with, although the terms would remain confidential.
Somewhat ominously, however, Dave Prentis, Unison’s general secretary told the Daily Mail that a further 40,000 similar cases up and down the country had been waiting on the verdict of the court hearing. He added: “It makes sense the Council has seen fit to pay women fairly.”
Big pay cuts
The news came to light as hundreds of staff at the UK’s largest local authority, Birmingham City Council, started a one-day walk-out over new employment contracts.
Unison, which has 10,000 members at the joint Conservative/Liberal Democrat-run Council, claimed that the contracts, which are due to come into effect from 1 November, removed various pay enhancements and introduced “insecurity” over employment.
Graeme Horn, joint branch secretary of the Birmingham branch of the union, told the BBC, that the strike date was chosen to coincide with the last day of the LibDem conference, which was being held in the city.
“We are calling on the Liberal Democrats to think again about these cuts in pay for their own low-paid staff. Our home carers, cooks, cleaners, residential care assistants, children’s home workers and countless others just simply can’t afford to have their pay cut by 30%, 20% or even 10%,” he said.
Councillor Alan Rudge, cabinet member for equality and HR, said that while industrial action was always “regrettable and disappointing”, the local authority had contingency plans in place for such eventualities.
The Council has previously said it believed that the contracts were fair and necessary for it to make savings of more than £300 million over the next four years.
