Women who fought equal pay case hit by legal fees

WOMEN who won a battle for equal pay will see their settlements reduced to cover legal fees despite being told they would get the full amount.

A probe by the BBC’s Disclosure programme found that claimants in the Glasgow City Council dispute had the fees deducted despite union pledges.

Thousands of women fought the council for equal pay. Members of Unison, Unite and the GMB were told they would get 100 per cent of the settlement money offered by the council.

But the BBC claims to have seen legal documents showing ‘all claimants’ had fees deducted.

The equal pay dispute over women being paid less than men in comparable jobs was settled in January. Glasgow City Council agreed to pay out a reported £548million to compensate the women.

Most of the 16,000 claimants were represented by claims company Action 4 Equality, run by lawyer Stefan Cross. The unions had promised members they would get all the money they were owed.

However, Disclosure revealed last night the three unions – as well as Action 4

‘They all had to sign up’

Equality – entered into a deal before negotiations began with the council.

As part of this deal, it was agreed that every claimant would have a percentage of the settlement offered by the council deducted in legal fees. This included those backed by their unions.

Mr Cross says 6.9 per cent was deducted from ‘all the claimants’, with a proportion being paid to his company. He acknowledged the amounts deducted added up to ‘many millions’ of pounds.

The BBC said it understood that none of the claimants represented by their unions were told they would be paying fees.

Under the terms of the settlement, none of the women is allowed to speak about how much they were awarded.

A UNISON spokesman said: ‘This was an incredibly complicated case involving thousands of women across the city. They all had to sign up before they could join the legal action.’

A spokesman for Unite declined to comment other than saying: ‘Unite the union will not be adding further comment on the BBC Disclosure documentary.’