Equal pay lessons not learned former Birmingham leader says

Sir Albert Bore stood down as leader of Birmingham City Council in 2015

A former leader of Birmingham City Council said lessons over equal pay should have been learned after a court ruling more than ten years ago.

The council has to pay up to £760m to settle equal pay claims, a sum equivalent to its annual spending.

It has already paid out £1.1bn to settle claims after a Supreme Court ruling in 2012.

Sir Albert Bore was council leader at the time and said lessons had not been learned.

He said the new bill for claims "should not have happened," after the previous equal pay claims.

When asked if lessons had not been learned by the council, he added: "I think that is probably the answer."

Sir Albert, who led the council from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2012 to 2015, described the ongoing issue as "more than unfortunate."

"There is a new set of equal pay claims which the city council have now received and that is now being worked through," he said.

The Labour-run city council has apologised for failing to get the situation under control.

All non-essential spending was recently suspended by the authority after the revelation.

Sir Keir Starmer recently defended Birmingham City Council's handling of equal pay claims

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer recently defended the authority's handling of the claims and said the new council leader, John Cotton, had "rolled up his sleeves" to address the issue.

The 2012 settlement followed a landmark court ruling which found hundreds of mostly female employees working in roles such as teaching assistants, cleaners and catering staff missed out on bonuses which were given to staff in traditionally male-dominated roles such as refuse collectors and street cleaners.

In 2021, the GMB union said it had warned the council there could be a wave of fresh claims after new information emerged about how the council evaluated roles.