Council announces equal pay review of 2,000 roles

Sheffield City Council has announced it will carry out an equal pay review looking at more than 2,000 different job roles at the authority.

The council said the job evaluation process was expected to take two years to complete, but it could not say how many of its 8,000 employees would be affected.

The announcement comes after the GMB union launched a campaign for a review in 2023, alleging that some workers were missing out on thousands of pounds a year.

Council leader Tom Hunt said: "We firmly believe in equity, and we can say with no hesitation that introducing a new job evaluation process is the right thing to do.”

Every role in the council, including senior leaders and directors, will be reassessed to ensure all employees are graded appropriately.

Teachers are not part of the review, but some non-teaching staff will be.

The review does not include agency staff or those working for AMEY and Veolia on behalf of the council.

By law, claims can be backdated up to six years but the council has stressed not everyone has been paid unfairly.

The authorities finance officers have said they are confident any equal pay claims would not be on a scale serious enough to bankrupt the council.

Mr Hunt said: “Job evaluation and equal pay are complex areas and we are taking this matter very seriously.

“We have looked at this proactively and in depth and have worked positively with our union partners to come up with a solution that is fit for the future.

GMB, Unison and Unite said in a joint statement: “We will continue to hold the council to account on equal pay and we are assured that they are listening to, and acting on, our concerns.

“Our priority is to ensure that there is a fair and equal scheme for employees in the future, and that anyone who has not been paid equally gets that rectified.”

The council has been using a job evaluation scheme - known as the GLPC - since 2010, but after an independent review it was identified that "the way [it] had implemented the scheme may have led to disparities in job evaluation".

In a statement the council said, as a result, a new scheme - the Sheffield Role Review Programme - had been devised in partnership with trade unions.

In September 2023, Birmingham City Council effectively declared itself bankrupt in by issuing a section 114 notice citing a series of problems, including huge levels of equal pay claims.

Glasgow City Council agreed to pay out a total of about £770m to settle its long-running equal pay dispute.

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