South Lanarkshire Council has reached a settlement on its long-running equal pay dispute, involving more than 3,000 people.
Female employees at the council, mainly in low-paid positions, had successfully argued they were paid less than their male counterparts. The council will now have to pay out millions in equal pay claims, although the exact details of the overall settlement will remain confidential.
Paul Manning, the council’s executive director of finance and corporate resources, said: ‘South Lanarkshire has long been committed to equality of pay for those in comparable jobs, regardless of gender. We are glad to be in a position to continue to lead the way on this issue by settling with these claimants.’
Carol Fox, of Fox and Partners who represented the workers, said: ‘This has been a complex and long-running case but we are delighted that we have been able to secure a settlement that we can recommend to our clients.
‘It has taken a considerable amount of time and legal work to progress a mass settlement for more than 3,000 individual claimants. We will be contacting everyone in due course to outline what the settlement means for them, and we ask everyone for their continued patience and co-operation as we do that in the coming months.’
Birmingham City Council is facing a reported £1bn cost of settling equal pay claims.
