Council spends thousands fighting workers' pay claims

Coventry City Council has admitted to having spent £747,000 so far on outside lawyers, to try and stop some of its own employees getting equal pay.

Dave Nellist, Socialist Party councillor

Top Tory councillor Tony O'Neill, the council's deputy leader and cabinet member for finance has admitted the huge bill.

Answering one of my questions, he revealed at a recent council meeting that £12,000 was spent in 2005/06, £389,000 in 2006/07 and £346,000 so far this year, giving a total of £747,000. It is believed the cost could be even higher when other expenses such as officers' time and VAT are added, bringing the total bill to approaching £1 million.

Over 650 Coventry council employees have taken cases to the employment tribunal claiming equal pay.

It's bad enough that hundreds of council workers have been illegally underpaid by the council and have been forced to take their cases to a tribunal. But then for the council to spend nearly £1 million on outside legal fees and costs to try and stop them is a misuse of council taxpayers' money.