THOUSANDS of female council employees expecting a major windfall as part of an equal pay dispute will have to wait months for any confirmation if victory amid warnings of premature celebrations.

Senior union figures and local authority sources have said the pay dispute involving around 6500 Glasgow City Council staff has several further months of legal wrangling before it comes to any conclusion.

It comes after leading lawyer Stefan Cross declared victory over the authority, predicting a total payout of £100million.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled in the council's favour in declaring their equal pay scheme since 2007 to be legal, but against it in two aspects of implementation.

Unison's Sam McCartney said: "The bottom line is that at this point in time its premature to say who has won or lost. How this will pan out will take much much more legal wrangling to get a resolution. And the figures bandied around are way in excess of what anyone can expect."

The Herald understands there are a range of options open to the parties which could see the saga drag on, with only an unlikely settlement at this stage likely to draw the curtains on it.

Either party could take the aspect of the claim they lost to the Court of Session or return to the Tribunal and request a fresh examination.

One senior source within the administration said: "Our advice is that this isn't quite as presented and that we shouldn't be overly concerned that we're going to have a whole new multi-million pound gap to fill.

"This is coming from senior officers. You'd hope they were correct."

Another said: "It's hard not see this declaration of victory as an attempt to scare other councils not as far down the road in their dispute as Glasgow."

A council spokesman said: “The tribunal has, again, ruled that the council’s job evaluation scheme is valid and in accordance with the relevant equal pay legislation.

“We are still carefully considering our position in terms of pay protection and assimilation.”