By Lucy Phillips
28 September 2010
Local authorities could face a ‘landslide’ of legal claims from female workers if they fail to adequately assess the equality impacts of cutting women’s jobs, a union has warned.
Unison has pledged to use the Equality Duty to take action against local authorities that do not consider the impact of spending cuts on women, who form the majority of the public sector workforce and rely most on public services.
The union, which has more than 1.3 million members, claims government spending cuts are having a disproportionate effect on women. Unless councils and other public sector employers take this into account when considering cuts to jobs and services they risk ‘multiple legal claims’, it said.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis warned: ‘We have spent decades fighting for equal pay and to ensure that women are treated fairly in the workplace. We will not stand back and see all that work undone by councils cutting jobs indiscriminately.
‘The battle for Britain’s public services could tie up our already overstretched legal system for decades, if employers do not carry out equality impact assessments. It is easy to see that women are literally in the firing line when it comes to public sector job cuts and that is not acceptable.’
Unison says it has already has 30,000 equal pay claims currently going on in the courts, with some of the cases dragging on for years. Altogether it has lodged more than 40,000 claims to the courts.
A survey of 50 councils by the union last year revealed that more than £11.5m had been spent by local authorities defending equal pay cases.
A spokesman from the Local Government Association said: ‘Equal pay has become a long running saga in local government because local government is committed to sorting out any historical problems.
‘I’m sure that councils who do cut jobs will do it in a professional, sensitive and best manner possible.’
In August, the Fawcett Society launched judicial proceedings against the government, claiming the Treasury had failed to carry out a proper equality assessment of its June Budget.
