Women push for equal pay settlement to be made pensionable
23 March 2018
Women push for equal pay settlement to be made pensionable
Former and current female employees of Glasgow City Council are lobbying for pensions to be included as part of an equal pay settlement.
Rather than go through the court, Glasgow council is working to resolve pay issues through negotiation, as last year the Court of Session decided that a regrading of the scheme (which was introduced in 2007) might have provided less favourable treatment for female employees.
Last month Unison - one of the unions involved in the campaign commented that “Having won the legal case, they are now demanding a fair and transparent pay and grading scheme and full compensation for the pay they have been denied”.
Thousands of current and former female employees are now lobbying for pensions to form part of the settlement.
Claims for back pay entitlement date back to 2007 and Stefan Cross QC who is representing approximately 7,500 women pursuing claims (of almost 12000) said: “it’s absolutely essential that those payments are made pensionable”.
It has been estimated that the cost to the council will be in the region of £500 million for compensating female employees for being paid less than their male counterparts. If pensions are included as part of the equal pay settlement this could be significantly more