THIRD OF COUNCIL EQUAL PAY CLAIMS NOT SETTLED

12 years after deadline to end gender pay gap, councils had yet to settle a third of all claims

TWELVE years after the equal pay implementation deadline for councils across Scotland, a third of claims were still outstanding.

Local government watchdog the Accounts Commission said about £750million has been spent settling claims since 2004 – but nearly 27,000 were still live this time last year.

Their study of how councils implemented a 1999 agreement to harmonise workers’ pay and address historic inequalities found all but one of the 32 local authorities missed the 2004 deadline.

It took 11 years – twice as long as planned – for all councils to finally implement the agreement by 2010.

The commission found progress was slowed by funding problems as councils received no extra money for the new pay scheme.

And some tactics to save costs and avoid industrial action, like protecting pay and bonuses for some roles, were found to be discriminatory.

The report said: “Ultimately, the measures councils adopted kept men’s salaries higher than women performing equivalent roles.”

The commission also found a “lack of collective national leadership to overcome the challenges and address equal pay issues in a timely way”.

From 2004 to September 2016, some 70,453 equal pay claims were lodged against councils.

Payouts, including compensation agreements and legal fees, totalled about £750million but at the end of September last year, 26,912 equal pay claims lodged with the Employment Tribunal Service remained live – a third of all claims since 2004.

Of these, nine out 10 were from women and thousands had been live for more than a decade.

North Ayrshire has the most claims still live at more than 95 per cent, compared to the national average of 37.4 per cent – and workers could potentially still make new claims.

Commission member Pauline Weetman said: “Councils need to be confident pay equality is embedded in how they operate. It’s critical that officers ensure they’re doing all they can to fulfil their duties and elected members continue to scrutinise and challenge their progress.”