Sheffield Council 'not in the territory' of going bankrupt despite looming compensation for underpaid staff
Sheffield City Council is not in the territory of going bankrupt despite looming compensation payouts following concerns regarding equal pay, leader Tom Hunt has said.
Councillor Hunt denied the authority was anywhere near going bankrupt during an interview with The Star and added the council should be able to manage the costs of rectifying disparities in salaries.
The interview comes after the council announced a two-year “job evaluation process” for all its employees.
Concerns about equal pay related to the current job evaluation scheme were raised by the GMB trade union in autumn 2023.
The GMB, one of three main unions representing council staff, launched an equal pay claim a year ago, saying that thousands of women could be losing out on up to £11,000 a year.
Coun Hunt said it would be wrong to “speculate” on any potential cuts to services or redundancies when asked by The Star, but did confirm there would be a compensation scheme for staff identified to have been underpaid.
After the GMB raised the concerns, Grant Thornton conducted an external, independent review into Sheffield Council’s equal pay scheme, its processes and its data, in order to identify where changes should be made.
The review is reported to have found there were no issues wiht the GLPC job evaluation scheme the authority was using, but it identified the way Sheffield City Council had implemented the scheme may have led to disparities in job evaluation.
Some sets of jobs were grouped into 'job families', rather than each role being assessed separately, which is what will happen from now on.
The council has stressed that men and women doing the same job are paid the same as each other.
Councillor Hunt denied the authority was anywhere near going bankrupt during an interview with The Star and added the council should be able to manage the costs of rectifying disparities in salaries.
The interview comes after the council announced a two-year “job evaluation process” for all its employees.
Concerns about equal pay related to the current job evaluation scheme were raised by the GMB trade union in autumn 2023.
The GMB, one of three main unions representing council staff, launched an equal pay claim a year ago, saying that thousands of women could be losing out on up to £11,000 a year.
Coun Hunt said it would be wrong to “speculate” on any potential cuts to services or redundancies when asked by The Star, but did confirm there would be a compensation scheme for staff identified to have been underpaid.
After the GMB raised the concerns, Grant Thornton conducted an external, independent review into Sheffield Council’s equal pay scheme, its processes and its data, in order to identify where changes should be made.
The review is reported to have found there were no issues wiht the GLPC job evaluation scheme the authority was using, but it identified the way Sheffield City Council had implemented the scheme may have led to disparities in job evaluation.
Some sets of jobs were grouped into 'job families', rather than each role being assessed separately, which is what will happen from now on.
The council has stressed that men and women doing the same job are paid the same as each other.
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