Town halls 'waste' millions fighting equal pay claims

It was branded a "bonanza" for lawyers by one MSP yesterday, who also hit out at councils for failing to address an issue which has been "rumbling on for years".

About 3.5 million has been paid out by councils, which also covers tribunal cases brought by disgruntled workers, a Freedom of Information request by The Scotsman has revealed.

The biggest payout came in Midlothian, which had a bill of 496,000 over the past five years, while Aberdeen paid out 459,000.

Among the law firms to benefit were MacRoberts, which was paid just over 1.3 million by councils. Brodies took in 923,000, while MacLay, Murray and Spens was paid 245,000, the figures from 22 of Scotland's 32 councils show.

Conservative chief whip David McLetchie said: "These figures are the tip of an iceberg by comparison with the hundreds of millions of pounds paid to date in meeting these claims, with many more still in the pipeline.

"This bonanza for lawyers is a small part of a much bigger equal pay scandal which has been rumbling on for years for which both councils and trade unions bear the primary responsibility, aided and abetted by governments which have refused to intervene despite repeated warnings about the scale of the problem."

A report by Holyrood's local government and communities committee two years ago found there were still 35,000 equal pay cases lodged with tribunals with "no resolution in sight".

It found the total bill for equal pay claims in Scotland had been estimated at 540m, of which about 169m was still owed to staff. The latter figured only covered 22 of Scotland's councils, meaning the final bill was likely to top 200m.

Single status agreements were made between councils and unions in 1999 to harmonise manual and non-manual workers' terms and conditions, but councils took years to do this.

A series of legal rulings in the intervening period on equal pay led to thousands of workers lodging claims with tribunals.

Two of Scotland's biggest councils, Glasgow and Edinburgh, did not provide figures, meaning the real figure is likely to be far higher. Midlothian says it has a small in-house legal team and must "buy in" specialised advice from external firms.

A spokesman for local government body Cosla said: "There is no doubt that we find ourselves in much more of a claims culture in the UK now.

"Councils have to get this right. They are legally obliged to. Secondly, we cannot be responsible for the numbers of claims that are coming our way; we just have to deal with them."

THE top ten councils for legal fees in tribunal cases were:

Midlothian 496,746

Aberdeen 459,292

Sth Lanarkshire 410,000

Argyll and Bute 376,962

Nth Ayrshire 284,000

Clackmannanshire 218,899

Nth Lanarkshire 180,395

West Lothian 125,451

Dumfries and Galloway 106,799

Shetland 77,034

Glasgow and Edinburgh did not provide figures.