Equal Pay: "compensation culture gone mad" or lawyers trying to bring valid claims for some of our poorest paid workers

A Labour MP is campaigning on a "compensation culture gone mad" ticket complaining that lawyers acting for some of the poorest paid people in the country are seeking to establish their rights to equal pay. The Local Government Employers meantime are seeking to persuade those employees to forego three years money due to them because they failed to plan for an agreement they reached 10 years ago.

While I respect Chris Mullin's right to have views on compensation, his accusation of a "compensation culture gone mad" on the equal pay issue is not supported by the facts in equal pay cases.

Equal pay legislation has been in force since 1970 (37 years) and local authorities have had 9 years 11 months to sort out the problem under the deal they negotiated with unions in 1997. Rather than undertake proper measures two thirds of them have chosen not to undertake the duties imposed on them by entering into an agreement and a significant number have chosen to stitch up the most vulnerable members of their workforce -- mostly poorly paid women -- often using cosy, cosy deals with the women's own trade unions (for goodness sakes) to deprive them of the money they are due.

In Allen v GMB, a recent employment tribunal concluded that : "the [GMB] union collaborated with them [in this case Middlesbrough council] in such a way that it applied practices which manipulated the members who had back pay claims into unwittingly sacrificing their rights to the benefit of other members and the council..."

Hardly surprising when for the most part it is union blokes negotiating with council blokes.

That lawyers like equalpaylawyer.co.uk have stepped in to represent women let down by their union in these cases is not surprising. What is surprising is that Chris Mullin and his well heeled/well paid supporters in the Local Government Employers (LGE) group now expect poorly paid women to forego three years of their back pay to which they are legally entitled because local authorities have failed to make any provision to meet their statutory liabilities and pay them what they are due.

Our lawyers take numerous calls each day from women who have faced long and extensive discrimination and if we can offer them then hope of being treated better in future, paid properly for the (often skilled) work they are undertaking and get them back pay for the six years - which under law they are due - who are Chris Mullin or indeed the LGE or their trade unions to to argue with their position?

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