Bury News
Council reaches agreement over equal pay claims
8:38am Thursday 2nd February 2012
A FIVE-year long equal pay wrangle which has cost more than half a million pounds in legal bills is finally over after Bury Council and the biggest town hall union reached an historic agreement. The settlement with Unison and its solicitors covers 943 claims from current and former council employees. The women, who do vital jobs such as cleaning and cooking, were paid less than their male colleagues for doing work of equivalent value. 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 ethan male council workers doing comparable jobs. Earlier, 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 went on: “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.