Union equal pay plea

Durham County Council is facing a potential equal pay claim worth tens of millions of pounds from thousands of female workers, according to the GMB union, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Bill Edgar.

The union said up to 3,000 women could support the claim, alleging they had been “systematically underpaid” compared with colleagues in predominantly male roles.

GMB campaigners gathered outside County Hall on Wednesday, urging councillors to back its pledge calling on the authority to negotiate a settlement rather than fight the claims through the courts.

The union argues there are structural differences in pay between roles largely carried out by women, such as teaching assistants, and jobs predominantly undertaken by men, including refuse collection.

Etaine Stobbart, GMB organiser, described the situation as “an absolute scandal”.

However, Durham County Council said differences in working arrangements between services were based on operational needs rather than gender, and that pay was set through a job evaluation and grading scheme designed to eliminate pay inequalities. 

Speaking outside County Hall, Ms Stobbart said: “Women workers at Durham Council have been systematically underpaid for years.

“Fifty years on from the Equal Pay Act, it’s an absolute scandal.

“These claims are not going away. Durham can either bury its head in the sand and see us in court, or do the decent thing and negotiate to get this sorted, like other councils have done.”

Ms Stobbart said the union believed jobs from grades five to 12 were affected.

She added: “We are asking councillors to sign our pledge to say they will back us on equal pay, so we can settle it, rather than going through a long legal process, which is costly to both sides.

“We have spoken to the leader of the council, Andrew Husband, and we are hopeful we can get everyone together and resolve this.

“We want women to be paid fairly at the same rate for the relevant grade.

“Pay everyone fairly and equally as they have been graded and scored. It doesn’t matter what you do; you should get paid the value for the job you are doing.”

In response, Durham County Council said it would not comment directly on the allegations because of the prospect of legal action.

Alison Lazazzera, the council’s head of human resources and employee services, said: “We note the GMB’s comments. However, it would not be appropriate for the council to comment on them directly, given the potential court action mentioned.

“It is nevertheless important to clarify that working arrangements with and across the council vary between services for legitimate operational and objectively justifiable reasons.

“Any flexibility in working patterns reflects the nature of the work performed and is not related to gender. Those differences, particularly in relation to our refuse collection teams who have a group working arrangement, have also been agreed with the trade unions through a local collective agreement.

“Pay is determined by reference to job evaluation and grading under our Job Evaluation Scheme, which is designed to eliminate inequalities in pay.”