Equal pay claims may top Wolverhampton City Council's £30m pot
Hundreds of equal pay claims by former employees of Wolverhampton City Council may cost even more than the £30 million set aside by the authority to deal with them it is feared.
The council has spent years trying to iron out inequalities between male and female workers.
Bosses have already paid out £33m to settle some of the claims in 2008 and it has also emerged they are trying to fight an 'astonishingly high' claim for £1.1m legal costs by one firm of lawyers – London-based Leigh Day – who are representing many of the 422 potential claimants.
Leaked documents have also revealed that at least a further 17 women have made claims following a legal ruling that said Birmingham City Council had to pay compensation even if it had been more than six years since the employees left the council.
The claims are lodged by former dinner ladies, learning support workers, social care staff, leis-ure workers, caterers and administration staff.
In a report seen by the Express & Star, the council's head of finance Mark Taylor said: "It is not currently possible to quantify the total cost of all equal pay settlements that are currently facing the council and this will continue to be the case for some time.
"Therefore it is not possible to say at this stage whether the £30m held in equal pay provision will be sufficient to cover the cost of all the council's potential equal pay settlements."
He added that law firm Leigh Day had also calculated its own costs at more than £3,000 plus VAT per case. "The costs outlined by Leigh Day are considered to be astonishingly high at £1,156,658.60", he said.
Conservative councillor Wendy Thompson today laid the blame at the door of the controlling Labour party saying: "The council should have outsourced the refuse collection service more than a decade ago but chose not to and now taxpayers are counting the cost."
Liberal Democrat leader and ex-mayor Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett added: "The whole thing from start to finish has been a farce."
Council spokesman Mel Ryan said: "Following the Birmingham City Council ruling the council has received some historic equal pay claims.
"It is now taking legal advice on how to respond to these. Provision is being made in the budget but as in every report on this subject, good practice requires the council to be mindful of the impact of as yet unknown claims."
The law firm Leigh Day said it found the council's reaction to their fees 'surprising' and that they had offered to settle the case in 2008.
