Thousands of women at one of the UK's biggest councils are set to walk out on strike for two days this week over equal pay.

Up to 8,000 female staff are taking action against Glasgow City Council alleging it has failed to settle the long-standing dispute.

The main union Unison says the strike set for tomorrow and Wednesday will affect schools, nurseries, home care, cleaning and catering across the city.

It says union members will make sure there is full 'life and limb' cover to make sure vulnerable people are looked after.

However the council has warned there will be no service, accusing the union of failing to make any efforts to ensure there will be 'life and limb' cover.

The union says the council’s current SNP leadership last year promised to negotiate a settlement to the 10-year-old dispute but it has so far failed to materialise.

Unison Glasgow chair Mary Dawson said: 'We have given the council 10 months to make progress on addressing the historical discrimination suffered by these workers.

'However, the council has agreed nothing, offered nothing and all we have had are meetings about meetings and talks about talks. It’s time for some action.'

In a statement Glasgow City Council said it was 'exploring all options to avert the strike'.

It said: 'There is nothing that the strike can achieve that we are not already doing and we are anxious to see everyone back around the table in good faith to move things forward.

'At the same time, the way union leaders have approached the strike has been hugely disappointing.

'We believed we had an agreement on providing life and limb cover for our most vulnerable citizens – indeed, the unions told the public that cover would be in place.

'It won’t. There has been absolutely no meaningful effort from the unions to work with us and their membership to ensure that life and limb cover will be in place.'