Birmingham launches appeal over "£200m" equal pay ruling

Birmingham City Council has revealed that it is to appeal against a tribunal hearing in April, which ruled that the local authority had discriminated against 4,000 female employees by not paying them bonuses which were available predominantly to male employees.

The case related to historical bonus schemes which were abolished by the local authority in 2008 following a review of staff terms and conditions of employment.

A Birmingham spokesman said: “An application to appeal in respect of the tribunal’s decision has been lodged as there are some elements of the judgement that we feel are incorrect.”

The city council has already settled with the “vast majority” of its 11,000 female manual employees, he said.

The spokesman added: “The council has always acted responsibly to any equal pay claim, and now has in place a revised pay and grading structure. An audit of this revised seven grade pay structure was independently undertaken by TMS and they confirmed that it reduced overall gender pay gaps below the Equal Opportunities Commission significance level and they remain below the Equality and Human Rights Commission significance level."

Claimant solicitors have argued that the council’s bill from the April ruling could be as high as £200m, based on an average claim worth £50,000.

UNISON called on Birmingham City Council to “stop wasting council taxpayers' money” and drop the appeal.

The union’s regional head of local government, Tony Rabaiotti, said: “Instead of wasting council taxpayer’s valuable money on legal costs, this authority should pay the low paid women employed by the council the money they are owed.

“They’ve wasted millions of pounds in legal fees so far and seem intent on wasting even more. Given the cuts in public expenditure that are looming, it is money the council can ill afford to fritter away, yet it is clearly intent on doing so.”