Sheffield City Council hit by thousands of equal pay claims

GMB union members have launched a campaign over equal pay issues

A council is facing equal pay claims from thousands of women, according to a union which alleges some workers are missing out on up to £11,000.

Sheffield City Council is the latest authority to face action after the GMB union launched a claim on Monday.

Union organisers say they want the council to commit to a full review of all equal pay issues identified.

The council's deputy leader said staff were encouraged to raise concerns about equal pay with the authority directly.

According to the GMB union, the claims centre around the council's job evaluation scheme, which it said routinely discriminates against women-dominated roles.

Will Dalton, regional organiser for GMB, told BBC Radio Sheffield: "Because of the job families that the council places employees into, roles predominately filled by women tend to come out at a lower grade, even though they may have had the same or similar score."

The union compared the pay of a senior teaching assistant, which is a grade 5 role, with a night-time noise officer, which is a grade 7 role, saying the difference translates as an £11,383 differential.

It also compared care managers on grade 5 with cemetery supervisors on grade 7, a difference it said amounted to £7,301 annually.

Sue Wood, senior organiser at GMB said the union estimated around 9,000 of its members were potentially affected by this.

She said: "Women have been underpaid forever in this council and everywhere else.

"This claim goes back six years - we truly believe our women are owed a huge amount of money."

The union is now calling on the council to scrap the job allocation scheme, commit to a full review of all equal pay issues identified and review all roles across the council to ensure fair pay.

In response, Sheffield City Council said it had a "positive and long-standing" relationship with trade unions and was using the evaluation scheme to ensure council jobs were graded fairly.

Deputy council leader Fran Belbin said: "We have had this scheme in place since 2010 and it includes an appeals process.

"When a grade is confirmed as needing to change, changes are made."

Any member of staff can request a review should they believe their grade was not correct, Ms Belbin added.

Earlier this month, Birmingham City Council effectively declared itself bankrupt by issuing a section 114 notice citing a series of problems, including huge levels of equal pay claims.

GMB said it did not wish to bankrupt any local authority but said councils could not "continue to operate on stolen money".