Local councils are being encouraged to ensure equal pay for all staff.

Unison is stepping up its campaign for equal pay for women, revealing that women are paid 17p an hour less than men – 40p less in the case of part-time female workers – and has backed Local Government Minister John Healey’s offer of support for councils to achieve equal pay.

Healey has today, 26 September, announced that 34 councils are now able to raise £455 million – either by borrowing or selling assets – to help them fulfil their offer of equal pay to all staff, which mostly comprises women on low pay.

Public service union Unison has long campaigned for equal pay and has only recently confirmed its aim for legislation to be updated, claiming that while only 126 equal pay cases were won last year, many more people had died “while their cases are tied up in red tape” before they received their entitlements.

Bronwyn McKenna, Unison’s Director of Organising and Membership, said at a conference on Labour’s employment rights: “It is impossible to right historic injustice on the cheap. We welcome government measures to allow councils to release money for equal pay but really, nearly 40 years after Barbara Castle’s Equal Pay Act, it is unacceptable that we are still failing to find all the money needed to pay women – women who are core Labour voters – fairly.”

Commenting on Healey’s announcement, the General Secretary of Unison, Dave Prentis, said: “With a million women in membership, funding equal pay is a huge issue for Unison. That’s why today’s announcement is very welcome news, and a huge boost for those women in the local councils affected, who will receive some pay justice at last.”

According to the Local Government Employers Report, July 2007, only two in five local authorities had implemented or completed their pay reviews. By 2008, this had increased by three in five, however the government aims to increase this further:

“Work of equal value deserves equal pay. Local government workers have the legal right to fair pay like anyone else, but some councils have let unequal pay persist for decades,” commented Healey. “I’m determined to see councils settle their equal pay obligations. Local government workers should get the equal pay to which they are entitled.”