Fife Council has been hit by equal pay claims which could cost the authority hundreds of millions of pounds.
Around 1,000 staff members have launched legal action following a job re-evaluation exercise in 2005.
It involves cooks, cleaners, catering staff and home carers, lower-paid roles traditionally carried out by female workers.
They claim they are still being paid up to £3-an-hour less than equivalent male-dominated jobs such as gardening and refuse collection.
Fife Council is defending the action, which will be heard by an employment tribunal in January.
It says it is the second stage of a challenge, with the first stage ruling in the council’s favour.
But, according to lawyer David Hutchison, if it loses, it could be forced to pay a similar amount to the £82 million already settled since 2005.
And he insists that could turn out to be just the tip of the iceberg.
He said: “It has massive implications.
“If they fight this and lose it could open up the floodgates to claims of hundreds of millions.”
Female grades were ‘scored lower intentionally’
Mr Hutchison is a Glasgow-based employment law specialist and represents the Fife Council staff involved.
He said: “We maintain previous arguments that female grades were scored lower intentionally to ensure male workers received higher rates of pay for similar roles.
“We are not instructed by a trade union for these claims and they are being pursued privately.”
The claims started in 2016 but were delayed by the Covid pandemic.
However, the lawyer said the time was now right to proceed given the cost of living and ongoing national strikes.
“It’s low paid workers who are struggling and they are bringing the claim,” he said.
“If they win, it doesn’t just affect those individuals.
“It means others could then come forward and say they have been paid wrongly as well.
“We would question whether it is a good use of taxpayers’ money to fight it.”
Fife Council pay ‘agreed at national level’
The Fife Council equal pay claim has emerged just weeks after Glasgow City Council agreed to pay out around £770 million to settle a long-running dispute.
Payments will be made to around 19,000 current and former employees by the end of 2023.
And the council is selling a number of its buildings to raise the money needed.
Mr Hutchison said the Fife claims were not on the same scale as in Glasgow but were still significant.
The hearing in Dundee is due to begin on January 9 and is expected to last around three weeks.
Meanwhile, Fife Council’s head of human resources Sharon McKenzie said: “We are aware of ongoing claims relating to equal pay.
“These current cases relate to the second stage of a challenge, the first stage of which the employment tribunal ruled in favour of Fife Council.
“As a council we value all of our employees and our pay rates are assessed using a job evaluation system designed and agreed at a national level underpinned by relevant equality legislation.”
