The claim could affect the salary of a total of 4,000 teaching assistants employed by Lancashire County Council, including nursery nurses, special support assistants and learning and classroom assistants, costing the council up to 10m. It could also set a precedent for other local authorities.
Unison submitted the claim to an employment tribunal last Friday in Manchester, but said it had stayed its application 'on the basis that Lancashire County Council has agreed to negotiate to secure satisfactory gradings for its school support staff'. The union and the county council hope a settlement can be reached without a formal employment tribunal hearing.
The union said that school support staff, who are mostly female, do work of equal value to that done by comparable male employees working as technicians in the council's engineering department.
Tony Martin, the council's portfolio holder for resources, said that 'the union case has merit', but added that he was 'disappointed that it had made its claim public when negotiations have been going on for some time'.
He warned that, after imposing a 10 per cent rise in council tax this year, the council had little room for manoeuvre and suggested that meeting the claim in full might result in better pay for school support staff, but also compulsory redundancies as schools would be unable to pay their new salaries.
He hoped that an amicable and fair settlement could be reached by August or September.
Lancashire Unison official Tim Ellis said pay rates among the ten groups within the school support staff workforce range at the moment from 13,000 for qualified nursery nurses to 7,500 for non-teaching assistants.
Unison's national secretary for local government, Heather Wakefield, said, 'School staff are among the most undervalued in local government. These equal pay claims demonstrate the need for local authorities to carry out urgent pay audits and bring the pay structures in line with the Equal Pay Act.'
'By taking this case, Unison is demonstrating its commitment to attacking the gender pay gap and we will pursue further cases on behalf of all groups of women staff.'
