ONE of the UK's largest trade unions has launched a new wave of equal pay claims against Glasgow City Council.

GMB Scotland has registered a collective grievance against Cordia, the authority's arms-length care company, representing 1200 claims for its members.

Those included in the claim include home carers, janitors and cleaning staff for Glasgow City Council. The claims relate to overtime premiums, non-standard working payments and payments relating to work content demand.

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GMB said that although Cordia is a different legal entity to the council it believed responsibility for the claims was likely to end up being with the local authority.

It said the value of the claims could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds for the council "on top of the millions of pounds in liabilities it already has for 1600 outstanding equal pay claims from GMB members".

But sources within the council said there could be no indication of the scale of any potential payouts until the case was heard by the Employment Tribunal.

The source also claimed the union was premature in its belief it had already won cases still going through the system.

Louise Gilmore, GMB Scotland organiser, said "Glasgow City Council and Cordia have a disgraceful record on equal pay and the treatment of women. We are adamant Cordia and Glasgow City Council will be held to account for the disgraceful way thousands of GMB members, predominantly women have been treated."

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A spokesman for Cordia said: “We have received the letter and will respond in due course.”