Birmingham CC: testing the water

Equal pay disputes in employment tribunals have in recent years gained a high profile, with, in particular, large employers such as the NHS (following its Agenda for Change programme) and city councils experiencing multiple claims, many of which are still being litigated, and are likely to be litigated for some considerable time. Of these the most prominent may well be the claims facing Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority employer in Western Europe, with more than 60,000 employees on its books.

At the end of April 2010 the employment tribunal in Birmingham rejected the defence of Birmingham City Council in a long running dispute about pay. The said defence was based upon the argument that there was a genuine material factor justifying the difference between the salaries received by around 4,000 female employees in around 50 different roles and various comparator groups of refuse workers, road workers road cleaners, and gardeners, some of whom, with bonuses and