Birmingham City Council has lost more than 5,000 claims for equal pay made by the female workers of the council. The claims stemmed from the issue of discriminatory bonus payment that allowed the male employees to earn more than £50,000 every year.

The female workers claiming their rights against the biased approach of their employers included cooks, caretakers as well as cleaners. The tribunal upheld the claims and declared that the bonuses paid to men were gender biased.

Statistics suggest that a substantial number of male employees working as street cleaners, road workers and refuse collectors received as much as 159% of the basic salary. The problem is that where male refuse collectors have been reported to earn £51,000, the female workers at the same post have never received more than £12,000.

The Council administration believed that the male refuse collecting staffs needs slightly different treatment than the females. The Employment Tribunal did not find a justification for the differential payment for men and women workers in this line, especially since men appear to be earning more for doing the same work. The Tribunal has decided to proceed with deciding upon the awards of £30m as supported by the Unison and GMB.

The decision is related to the bonus structure that was introduced long back and was revised several times since then. According to Councillor Alan Rudge, the revised bonus scheme of 2007 that introduced a new grading structure in payment scene satisfied the Equal Opportunity Commission equality guidelines. However, the scheme failed to address the grievances of many staff including the issues of under payment of women, which had resulted in a widespread strike in 2008.

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