Most local authorities have had the good sense to implement a negotiated collective agreement with their trade unions over the single status deal for local government workers. Not the dense heads of the Tory-Liberal coalition in Birmingham though. Instead, after years of dilly-dallying and dithering, they now face a massive bill following this court settlement of equal pay claims.
The sum of 2-3 billion pounds sounds a bit unrealistic, but we are obviously talking about massive amounts of public money. Just goes to show what a mess you can get in when the Tories and Liberals crawl in to bed together. As the solicitor said about the Council:
“They are the architects of their own misfortune. They wouldn’t talk to us and lacked the political guts to deal with the issue. They just delayed and delayed, but had no real defence”.
Sorry Bob: “They are the architects of their own misfortune. They wouldn’t talk to us and lacked the political guts to deal with the issue. They just delayed and delayed, but had no real defence”.
Why does this remind me of the Prisoners Votes Case, and the potential for a £75M compensation payout?