Talks were taking place today in a bid to settle the equal pay row that led to a two-day strike by more than 8,000 women in Glasgow this week.

A meeting was set to take place with union leaders this afternoon at Glasgow City Council's offices.

The council said it had written to the unions setting out the 'basis of an agreement' which would provide a basis for restarting discussions.

Union leaders said they saw the council's invitation to restart talks as an 'olive branch' after the strike which had been strongly supported by their members and by other workers who stopped work in sympathy with the women's case.

The council is facing thousands of individual claims by women who say they have been underpaid compared with men doing similar work in the dispute which goes back 12 years.

Last November the Court of Sessions backed the women but talks since then failed to produce a settlement despite the council's SNP leader Susan Aitken saying she supported the equal pay claims.

A spokesman for the council said: 'We had a series of productive meetings with the unions last week.

'While those discussions were not able to avert the strike, they do form a basis for us all to get together to formally restart our equal pay discussions.   

'We wrote to the trade unions setting out the basis of an agreement about discussions and we will be meeting them today.'

GMB organiser Peter Welsh told LocalGov: 'Hopefully this is the first step in starting the process of resolving the dispute.

'We've got the council back to the table but success will only be measured when the women receive payment for their claims.'