The council will still not reveal how much it has spent fighting the parking ticket case. About time it was disclosed.
Sunderland Council facing £20m bill after pay fight
Jan 30 2011 by Linda Richards, Sunday Sun
MORE than 1,500 employees are celebrating after winning an equal pay battle.
Sunderland City Council now faces a £20m bill after its attempt to have an equal pay ruling overturned was rejected, leaving the employees in line for payouts of up to £16,000 each.
An employment tribunal in Newcastle found in 2008 that the council had unlawfully discriminated against women employees by giving bonus payments to male workers employed as street sweepers, gardeners and refuse collectors.
The women, represented by Newcastle-based Stefan Cross Solicitors Limited, submitted claims against the council in respect of their jobs which included cleaners, cooks and care assistants.
An appeal by the council has now been rejected by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
Members agreed with the Newcastle tribunal, which said that because the bonus payments had nothing to do with productivity and were simply part of basic pay, paying them only to the male employees amounted to discrimination which could not be justified and was therefore unlawful.
Paul Doran, of Stefan Cross Solicitors Limited, who acted for the women, said: “This is yet another instance in which a local authority has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees defending the indefensible.
“It is incredible that more than 40 years since the implementation of the Equal Pay Act, women still have to revert to the courts and tribunals to allow them to receive equal pay for equal work.”
Sunderland’s appeal was heard along with a similar appeal by Bury Council.
In the Bury case, the EAT also ruled that “protection” arrangements that allowed the men to continue to receive higher pay after a new pay structure was introduced as also unlawful.
This will affect thousands of Sunderland workers because Sunderland introduced a similar, but far more generous scheme.
These arrangements are the subject of ongoing claims in the tribunals but this latest ruling will help the women in this case too.
There are already 1,500 women making such claims and the total bill to the council could exceed £20m.
The council is believed to have already spent more than £1m on legal bills fighting the cases.
Sunderland Council facing £20m bill after pay fight
Jan 30 2011 by Linda Richards, Sunday Sun
MORE than 1,500 employees are celebrating after winning an equal pay battle.
Sunderland City Council now faces a £20m bill after its attempt to have an equal pay ruling overturned was rejected, leaving the employees in line for payouts of up to £16,000 each.
An employment tribunal in Newcastle found in 2008 that the council had unlawfully discriminated against women employees by giving bonus payments to male workers employed as street sweepers, gardeners and refuse collectors.
The women, represented by Newcastle-based Stefan Cross Solicitors Limited, submitted claims against the council in respect of their jobs which included cleaners, cooks and care assistants.
An appeal by the council has now been rejected by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
Members agreed with the Newcastle tribunal, which said that because the bonus payments had nothing to do with productivity and were simply part of basic pay, paying them only to the male employees amounted to discrimination which could not be justified and was therefore unlawful.
Paul Doran, of Stefan Cross Solicitors Limited, who acted for the women, said: “This is yet another instance in which a local authority has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees defending the indefensible.
“It is incredible that more than 40 years since the implementation of the Equal Pay Act, women still have to revert to the courts and tribunals to allow them to receive equal pay for equal work.”
Sunderland’s appeal was heard along with a similar appeal by Bury Council.
In the Bury case, the EAT also ruled that “protection” arrangements that allowed the men to continue to receive higher pay after a new pay structure was introduced as also unlawful.
This will affect thousands of Sunderland workers because Sunderland introduced a similar, but far more generous scheme.
These arrangements are the subject of ongoing claims in the tribunals but this latest ruling will help the women in this case too.
There are already 1,500 women making such claims and the total bill to the council could exceed £20m.
The council is believed to have already spent more than £1m on legal bills fighting the cases.
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