GLASGOW City Council's female workers fighting for equal pay are to be asked about strike action by their unions.

Bosses claim talks have stalled and now industrial action is being considered.

Consultative ballot papers will begin falling on doormats from Monday and could lead to formal action.

Carol Ball, UNISON Glasgow chairwoman, said: "We want the individual claimants compensated for past discrimination as soon as possible and a new job evaluation scheme which delivers pay equality and pay justice for all.

"UNISON is now calling on all members to increase the pressure on the council by voting for, and if necessary, taking strike action.

"All 10,200 UNISON members in Glasgow City Council and its ALEOs will receive consultative ballot papers from Monday.

"These consultative ballots will be used to build towards formal strike ballots if required."

The Court of Session ruled last year on Glasgow City Council’s unequal pay system, saying workers in the council and its arm’s length external organisations (ALEOs) have been discriminated against since 2006 when the Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR) was implemented.

Most of these workers are women, many low paid.

Nearly five months into a series of meetings with the trade unions and Action4Equality Scotland the dispute is still not resolved.


GMB Scotland Organiser Hazel Nolan said: “From the outset of the pay justice campaign we have been clear that if negotiations don’t progress as they should then the fight will be taken into our workplaces.

The trade unions and claimant groups have sat as one while council officials have stalled for months, knowing the final bill for decades of discrimination against the women of Glasgow keeps rising and rising.

The council won’t even take their heads out of the sand over the totally discredited WPBR system which has to go if the city wants to avoid the possibility of third, fourth and fifth waves of equal pay claims in future.

GMB will bring forward our own ballot plans shortly but our message to the council is loud and clear: If it fails to progress and deliver fair and just settlement for our claimants,  then it stands in direct confrontation with our union.”