Pay justice for women workers in equal pay win against council.

1,200 low paid women - including cleaners, support workers and cooks - stand to gain thousands of pounds each after UNISON fought and won an equal pay claim against Bury Metropolitan Borough Council.

Following a four-week hearing, the council’s claims that the men were paid more because of a genuine material factor, rather than because of the workers’ sex, were rejected.

And the Manchester Tribunal has ruled that the women will now earn bonus payments of between 33.33 per cent and 50 per cent, in line with male comparators, including refuse collectors, labourers and gardeners.

Dave Prentis, UNISON’s General Secretary, said:

“The Tory council, especially the Chief Executive, have a lot to answer for to the people of Bury.

“We are delighted that the women have won pay justice at last.

“But it is disgraceful that the council chose to spend Council Taxpayers money to the tune of over half a million pounds on legal fees, which have been wasted at the courts.

“These low-paid women are among many who are treated like second-class citizens.

“We will keep fighting to stop UNISON members being short-changed by employers who are determined to avoid their legal obligation to pay under the Equal Pay Act.

“These defences rarely succeed and we now hope that other local authorities will seek to settle claims sensibly.”

Bev Hodgkinson has worked for the council for 23 years in a variety of roles and was a home care worker at the time of the claim.

The 47-year-old, from Whitefield, said: “I am absolutely elated, It’s only right we should not be second to the men.

“We should never have been forced to go down this route and the case has been dragged out for years.

“We never felt that our work had been recognised, especially when we knew the men were getting paid more.

“Today we have finally received justice and hopefully this will have an impact on other cases in the future.”

Note:

The claims will be successful from six years prior to 31 March 2007 and covered a number of grades.

A manual grade one casual assistant may have come against a comparator earning a 33.33 per cent bonus.

If her 2007 salary were £11,500 than the bonus would be £3,832.95, so the total covering the six-year period is potentially £22,997.70.