Last month’s announcement that hundreds of low-paid women working across Birmingham City Council are to receive long-overdue payments was just the latest victory in our union’s fight for equality.
UNISON has been taking legal action in Birmingham on equal pay for almost two decades. While this case was about the specifics of refuse workers receiving more pay than women doing work of equal value as care workers, caterers and teaching assistants, I know from a lifetime in the union movement that the gender pay gap remains an established and entrenched reality for millions of women.
So, while it’s a fantastic victory that over 3,000 members – who are all low-paid women – will receive letters containing their financial compensation offers before Christmas, I am only too painfully aware that there are so many more women yet to experience equality and fairness in their pay packets.
I’m proud that UNISON’s tradition of fighting for equal pay for council workers across the UK has not only been maintained but enhanced.
Not only have we won an equal pay victory in Birmingham, there’s also been wins at Southampton City and Sheffield City councils.
We’ve put claims in on behalf of members working for local authorities in Swansea, Sunderland, Coventry, Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness.
While I’m general secretary of this union – the UK’s biggest and the country’s largest women’s organisation – we will never be afraid of taking councils on and fighting for the rights of women to earn the same as men for work that’s of equal value.
If there’s any inequality in pay, or any discriminatory practice, rest assured the union will continue to challenge it.
The post Opinion: Why I will always fight for equal pay appeared first on UNISON National.
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