More Supreme Court


The BBC's web site also carried an excellent report on the Supreme Court ruling - here are a few extracts which highlight the main issues.

Birmingham City Council loses equal pay appeal bid

Claimant Mary Roche told the BBC's Phil Mackie that she "couldn't believe" she was being underpaid.

A total of 174 former Birmingham City Council workers can go ahead with compensation claims over missed bonuses after the council lost a court appeal.

The workers, mainly women who worked in traditionally-female roles, such as cooks, cleaners and care staff, won a ruling over lower pay last November.

The Supreme Court rejected the council's argument the claims should have been made within six months of staff leaving their jobs.

Lawyers for the group called the result a "landmark" judgement and said it could have "huge implications" for potentially "thousands" of other workers.

The equal pay fight

27 April 2010: About 5,000 mainly female council staff, including cleaners, cooks, care assistants and caretakers win their case for equal pay at an employment tribunal

9 June 2010: The council announces plans to appeal against the equal pay ruling

9 May 2011: The council's appeal is dismissed at the Employment Appeal Tribunal

29 November 2011: A group of 174 female workers win a Court of Appeal decision on equal pay claims

10 January 2012: The council lodges an application for permission to appeal with the Supreme Court against the decision on equal pay claims

24 October 2012: The council is denied permission to appeal against the decision for low-paid female workers to seek compensation

The city council had challenged November's ruling in the Supreme Court but a panel of five judges dismissed the authority's appeal.

The court heard the women were among workers who had been denied bonuses which had been given to staff in traditionally male-dominated jobs such as refuse collectors, street cleaners, road workers and grave diggers.

For example, the annual salary of a female Manual Grade 2 worker was £11,127, while the equivalent male salary was £30,599.

The court was told that during 2007 and 2008, tens of thousands of pounds of compensation was given out to female council employees who were still working at the council.

More payments were made to women who had recently left who had taken cases to an employment tribunal.

However, these did not apply to anyone who had left the council more than six months before.

Mary Roche, from Yardley, who worked as a home help for the city council for 27 years, said she "could not believe it" when she heard about the bonuses they had missed.

Joan Clulow, 71, from Bartley Green, worked for the city council for 25 years, also as a home help, and said she felt "absolutely gutted" when she heard about the bonuses that had been paid to others.

I have highlighted only one sentence within the BBC report - the one which shows the pay differences between traditional male and female jobs. 

The reason being that these pay differentials did not appear by magic - they were negotiated by the council employers and the trade unions - and they were supposed to be swept away by the 1997 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement - which came into effect in Scotland in 1999. 

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