Court rules in favour of women staff in pay dispute

● Appeal by City Council refused by senior judge

Thousands of women workers at Scotland’s largest council are set to receive extra cash after a senior judge ruled in their favour in a long-running pay dispute.

Staff at Glasgow City Council instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh after being excluded from receiving payments which were being made to men.

The women acted because male workers doing similar jobs to them had been receiving large bonus payments while they did not.

The women believed that they had been discriminated against and launched the legal action through their trade unions, Unison and the GMB.

An employment appeal tribunal initially ruled in favour of the women.

But lawyers acting for Glasgow City Council appealed the decision at the Court of Session.

Yesterday, Scotland’s second most senior judge, Lady Dorrian, upheld the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

In a written judgement issued at the court, the Lord Justice Clerk wrote: “The appeal will be refused.”

The legal challenge originated following a workplace pay and benefits review conducted by the council in 2006.

Following the review, the council concluded that bonus payments which were being made to mostly male manual workers would no longer be paid.

As a consequence of this decision to no longer pay bonuses, the male workers were given a benefit of so called “pay protection”.

The council believed this would allow them to maintain their then-earnings into the future.

GMB Scotland Secretary Gary Smith called on the council to resolve the claims. He added: “After years of legal wrangling by Glasgow City Council, this morning’s judgment paves the way for thousands of low-paid women to claim justice.”

Responding to the court’s decision, Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council said: “This is a complex legal ruling. However, it is now clear that the award of pay protection was done in a way which discriminated against some of our female workers at that time.

“The right thing to do now is for the council to have open discussions with those workers and their representatives about how we give effect to this ruling. I hope there will be goodwill on both sides during those discussions.”