Glasgow City Council approves plan to cut pay for some workers

More than 2,500 staff at Glasgow City Council are to have their wages cut after the local authority approved plans to end a long-running equal pay dispute.

The council estimates that 63% of about 24,000 non-teaching staff will get a salary increase under a new pay scheme.

However, about 11% of those workers could lose out on up to £11,500 a year.

Several hundred workers - including representatives from all three big council unions - protested outside the City Chambers as councillors agreed the plans.

Council leader Susan Aitken said: "Where workers are facing a reduction in their earnings, that's going to have a very real and very personal impact – but we will do everything within our power to mitigate that."

She added: "None of this has been easy, but the consequences of not grasping this issue would have been catastrophic."

The local authority previously paid out about £770m after it emerged female workers in roles such as catering or cleaning had for years been receiving up to £3 an hour less than those in male-dominated areas such as refuse collection.

The new job evaluation scheme is designed to draw a line under the row by bringing pay scales into line with equality law.

There are to be no salary changes for 12 months after the scheme is implemented next year.

Equal pay disputes have not been restricted to Glasgow, with unions also taking on local authorities in Dundee, West Dunbartonshire and Fife.