Almost 1500 female low paid UNISON members in Cumbria are today celebrating the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision to uphold their pay discrimination claim and reject the Council’s appeal.
The women, who work as care assistants, home carers, kitchen assistants, cooks and night care assistants won their claim of pay discrimination at a Tribunal in March 2006, but Cumbria Council, appealed that decision. The appeal was heard in London, in May 2007 and the Judgment has been anxiously awaited since then.
The Council argued that the Tribunal had misunderstood the evidence and treated the Council unfairly in relation to the defences that they had put forward. They also alleged that the Tribunal had been wrong to decide that the productivity based bonus schemes that they had been paying to male employees, were not justified.
However, in its judgment, the Appeal Tribunal rejected these arguments and upheld the Tribunal’s original decisions, meaning that the women are one step closer to receiving the money owing to them.
Dave Prentis, General Secretary for UNISON, said: