Equal pay claims are a disaster for local councils

Bankrupt councils have gotten into trouble through profligate spending on loony projects like month-long Pride events and training staff in critical race theory. That might be true, but it is only partially true. Another big factor, it is becoming painfully clear, is equal pay claims – which have cost Birmingham City Council up to £760 million alone. Next in the firing line is Sheffield, where the GMB union claims to have opened the lid on a simmering pot of injustice which it plans to follow up with multi-million pound claims against the council.

These are not cases where men and women working alongside each other doing the same job are being paid different wage rates – such discrimination has been unlawful for decades. These are claims based on the idea that different occupations involve work of ‘equal value’.