THE leader of Scottish Labour has said women in Glasgow City Council are owed an apology for "too much resistance" to their equal pay claims during the time that the local authority was under his party's control.

Speaking to the Scottish Labour Party's Women's Conference in Glasgow, new leader Richard Leonard said Labour, in power in the city for decades before being ousted by the SNP last May, settled many equal pay claims but there was "too much legal obstruction".

The council dropped its legal challenge in January with cross-party agreement, having previously lost a Court of Session appeal against an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling that they had continued to discriminate against women through the introduction of payment protections upholding the earnings of male colleagues following the initial wave of equal pay awards.

Leonard said: "I am pleased that we are now on the right side of the argument with equal pay in Glasgow City Council. Many equal pay claims were settled under Labour in Glasgow, but there was too much resistance, too much legal obstruction and for that I think we owe those women an apology."