Equal Pay: Landmark decision paves the way for our members

More than 100 women members of UNISON in West Lothian are celebrating a historic equal pay victory.

They are among nearly 2000 members in Scotland who can expect to share in an estimated nearly £12 million in compensation after a UK Supreme Court judgment yesterday (26 June).

The success of 251 women from Dumfries and Galloway against their council in the landmark decision paves the way for our members to win their equal pay compensation from West Lothian Council.

The seven-year North v Dumfries & Galloway case has finally demolished the long-running defence by Scottish councils of paying men discriminatory bonuses that are denied to women....

Having conceded that council bonuses were discriminatory, more than 20 Scottish councils joined Dumfries in arguing that women should only get equal pay compensation if they worked at the same location as their male comparators.

UNISON had appealed after the Court of Session said the 251 classroom assistants, support for learning assistants and nursery nurses in Dumfries were not able to compare themselves with groundsmen, refuse collectors and drivers and leisure attendants who received bonuses, but were based at depots, not in the women’s schools.

The judgment overturns that decision, saying that UK equal pay law which allows a woman to compare herself with a man “in the same employment” does apply, even though the women worked at different ‘establishments’.