A Dundee woman fighting for equal pay justice accused the city council of deliberately delaying a settlement and risking an even higher final bill for taxpayers.
The claim comes as a landmark legal battle could see local authorities across the UK pay out billions of pounds with more than 3,000 claims already being brought against councils, including Dundee, Fife and Glasgow.
Claims have already been settled by some local authorities after mostly women workers were denied regular bonuses paid to male colleagues on the same pay grade.
The GMB Scotland union wrote to Dundee City Council leader John Alexander last week claiming his “repeated refusal” to meet officials or workers to discuss the claims exposes a disregard for some of the local authority’s most important staff.
Mr Alexander says the process is independent of councillors so he has no direct control over how claims are handled.
He said no information has been passed to council officers on the final number of claims or the total amount of money being sought.
Yvonne Ring, a care worker with the council for 31 years, is among the claimants despite retiring in 2020.
Her claim was lodged in 2019 – meaning five years of back pay based on bonuses given to other workers on the same pay grade.
Now 61, she said Dundee City Council should face up to its responsibilities and stop delaying the inevitable settlement of the equal pay claims.
‘Lack of respect’
“I saw the women in Glasgow winning their pay claim and knew the same thing had been happening in Dundee,” she said.
“If I knew it, the council knew it but it is still sticking its head in the sand. The councillors and officials are just trying to postpone the inevitable.
“They are delaying and delaying in the hope that they won’t need to deal with this but they need to stop tying these claims in legal red tape and start doing the right thing.
“There is a complete lack of respect and a failure of leadership.”
Ms Ring worked with people with learning disabilities and home care during her council career.
She retired because of increasing work-related stress when changes to the role of care workers were driven through without discussion.
“The people in charge had no idea of what our work involved and how much more difficult it was becoming to do the job we loved properly,” she said.
“I tried to tell managers of the impact on our clients and was told that ‘I cared too much.’ Well, that was my job.
“It is the same now with equal pay. The council knows what should be done and knows it will have to deal with it at some point but would rather kick it down the road and hope it will become someone else’s problem.
“They will be retiring with their big pensions while this is dragged through the courts and workers go without money they should have been paid years ago.”
Unfair pay ‘endemic in councils’
Cara Stevenson, who leads GMB Scotland’s women’s campaign unit, said unfair pay has been endemic across Scotland’s councils, including Dundee, and that the inequality must be urgently recognised and ended.
She said: “Far from avoiding the mistakes of other Scottish local authorities who have tried to contest equal pay claims and lost, Dundee City Council and others seem determined to repeat them.”
‘Moving forward to a positive space’
Mr Alexander said there is no reluctance to meet and noted GMB Scotland cancelled a scheduled meeting with senior council officers last month.
He said: “I have no direct control of that process, no matter how much I or any other organisation would wish me to.
“As things stand, I’m not aware of any information being provided by GMB on the claims, in terms of numbers or value.
“That, of course, is part of the process and I look forward to it concluding so we can move things forward into a positive space.
“I am clear that any wrongs identified through this independent process should be addressed and that we cannot repeat the mistakes of Glasgow Labour.”
Glasgow City Council was forced to sell assets such as the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Galleries to fund a £770 million compensation payment after years of wrangling.
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