Welsh women in equal pay campaign

Unison, Wales' biggest trade union, is in talks with solicitors about taking legal action on local councils after it found that thousands of women working in the public sector are not being paid as much as men.

Although Welsh councils had agreed to put an end to pay discrimination over a three-year period, by April 2007 many female employees are still not being paid the same salary as their male colleagues.

Although local authorities claim to be committed to equal pay structures, none of the 22 Welsh councils have introduced measures, Unison says. This news comes despite the fact that Neath Port Talbot and Torfaen councils are paying out £11 million in compensation to over 4,00 female workers because they had been paid unequally in the past.

Unison now says that it has no choice other than to embark on mass litigation, although it will still negotiate with councils for settlements out of court, the BBC reports.

"The situation is extremely frustrating," said Paul Elliott, head of local government for Unison in Wales. "Women local authority workers are rightly very angry about the failure of local authorities to end pay discrimination.

"Equal pay for work of equal value must be delivered now - women local authority workers have waited far too long to have this injustice rectified."

This Tuesday will be the ten-year anniversary of councils signing agreements with trade unions in Britain and Northern Ireland committing them to ending pay discrimination against female employees.

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