31 October 2008
By David Scott
Scottish councils have paid out more than £1.5m in legal fees to fight equal pay claims, a survey has disclosed.
The legal costs, which involve fees paid since 2006, were calculated by the Scottish Trades Union Congress after obtaining the figures from 27 of Scotland's 32 councils under freedom of information legislation.
The fees are in addition to the millions of pounds already paid out to workers in compromise deals struck as part of the Single Status Agreement of 2000.
The agreement was intended to end differences in the wages of men and women employed in comparable jobs, but it has been the subject of lengthy disputes between the unions and local authority employers.
Mary Senior, senior STUC assistant secretary, said: 'The STUC has real concerns that the only winners in this equal pay conundrum are the corporate lawyers. The current situation is not helping the women whose jobs have been undervalued for decades, nor local council taxpayers.'
She also claimed that the Scottish Government had failed to address inequality in the Scottish budget.
PFoct2008
