Alarm bells ringing as Birmingham City Council ‘months behind’ on equal pay crisis deadline

Birmingham City Council is months behind in its bid to finally end its equal pay crisis with millions of pounds a month at stake after becoming embroiled in disputes with union officials, it has emerged.

Council officials have been at odds with unions since at least March over how to fairly rate and describe staff jobs to help create a new pay system that doesn’t discriminate against women. Councillors, informed of the delays this week, described the news as “alarming” and “very concerning”.

At stake is a critical deadline of April 1, 2025 – set as the date for the introduction of a new pay and jobs structure at the council, which should protect it against any claims for more equal pay. It is estimated that every month that goes beyond the deadline risks costing the council £14m.

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If the dispute is not quickly resolved amicably, commissioners may have to step in and force through an alternative plan, a meeting of the council’s audit committee heard this week (Tuesday, July 17). And that could lead to conflicts with the unions involved, officials fear.

The council’s equal pay debts, revealed to a shocked public last year, were the catalyst for a major financial crisis at the council. At the time, it was thought the potential bill could reach £760 million in payouts for discriminated against women, although that estimate is now believed to be massively inflated.

But to end discrimination once and for all, an agreement was reached to re-evaluate each job role and implement a new scheme. The council, working with an outside company, is assessing job descriptions and the value of around 200 of 1,700 different “job titles” held by staff across the services, in a process that was due to conclude in May.

READ MORE: Truth exposed about Birmingham’s ‘secret’ council meeting on equal pay crisis

But so far, only about half have been completed, with 100 to go, with each assessment taking an average of 59 days to complete due to multiple pushbacks from union representatives. Many of the exceptional ones are in the trash and street scene department.

Cllr Richard Parkin, Cons, Sutton Reddicap, said: “This news is not entirely unexpected from many of us.” He said many people on the board warned that the deadline was too tight. But he questioned why it was only now flagged as a risk – weeks after the May deadline.

“At what point did someone not point out ‘there’s no way we’re going to deliver this… we have to reset?’ The cost is estimated at £14m more for every month that passes after April 2025, meaning more pain and suffering for residents. I am not convinced that this process was handled well.

“This is a big, huge, red warning flag. This is probably the thing, of all the documents I have seen, that gives me the greatest concern.”

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Investigations by Birmingham Live revealed that senior officers and commissioners had been aware of delays in job evaluations for several months. However, the risk discussion was buried in the minutes of the pay sub-committee chaired by the commissioner, which meets behind closed doors. The minutes of the April meeting state: “The unions are approaching Birmingham City Council and are saying that the pre-existing consultation process should be used….this is now a barrier preventing the equal pay program from moving forward as planned in – a useful time.”

At that time, approximately 20 of the more than 200 job description reviews had been completed.

City head of people services Katy Fox told the audit committee this week that an equal pay team had been in place since October and had been working closely with the three staff unions Unison, Unite and GMB. “But as the process was completed, it became apparent that on our current trajectory we would not meet the required April 2025 deadline for implementing the new job evaluation system,” she said.

The board sought to amend and shorten the time and processes involved, but the unions balked, she said. If no agreement is reached, the matter will be referred to commissioners to determine next steps “to protect the integrity of the process and the date.”

She described the ongoing job assessment scheme as “the biggest program of its kind in the country, if not Europe, (and we did it) from the ground up.

“There is no reason to believe that we cannot agree a modified process to achieve an outcome for 1 April 2025, in collaboration with the unions. It must be in our interest to maintain cordial and positive relations as far as humanly possible with union partners to try to achieve this.

“I can be absolutely certain that if I try to overturn or overturn agreements that have been in place in the council for decades, in some cases, I am absolutely certain that I will be on the receiving end of litigation and industrial action, which will further slow much this process. So it has to be in our best interest to try to do that together.”

Cllr Liz Clements (Lab, Bournville and Cotteridge) said it was “very alarming” to hear there was a question mark over whether that April 2025 deadline was achievable. “We were told last summer that if we don’t meet that deadline, then we have an unlimited payment debt that keeps getting closer.”

She told Ms Fox: “I trust you and I also appreciate what you said about the working relationship with the unions because you have to be constructive and everyone has to recognize … the acute financial risk that we all have face.”

She added that it is strange to have so many roles in the workforce, arguing that it would be better to have fewer generic roles. “Local government activity is largely the same everywhere. Obviously there are some things that are specific to Birmingham, but I think we need to get rid of that exceptionalism and get through it as quickly as possible based on best practice elsewhere. It’s unbelievable that we’re still at this stage.”