Male Council Workers Receive Equal Pay In 'Landmark' Case

Almost 300 male council workers in England have succeeded in a "landmark" sex discrimination ruling yesterday.

More than 12,000 men in low-paid jobs could now bring equal pay claims, after the test case in which 300 men working as care assistants, caretakers, drivers and leisure attendants lodged complaints against three English councils.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that the workers were discriminated against as they remained on lower pay than the women in the Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and South Tyneside councils.

The men lodged their claims at the same time as female colleagues who had complained that bonuses of up to 50% paid to male gardeners, refuse workers and street sweepers were discriminatory.

While the women's case succeeded and they were offered financial settlements, the men were not.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that the 300 men should have been offered the same back pay as the women.

Mr Judge Underhill, president of the tribunal, said: "It would be surprising and unsatisfactory if the [Equal Pay] Act offered no remedy to men in a situation like the present.

"The case where men and women do the same job but receive different rates of pay is the paradigm of the kind of situation which the Act was intended to prevent: how would it seem if - unusually, but not impossibly - the rules were reversed and the 'piggyback' claimants were not men but women?"

the cost for the councils nationally could be as much as £500 million, as there are already in excess of 12,000 cases awaiting the outcome of the decision since men have been excluded from settlements in numerous local authorities over the past three years.

(JM/BMcC)