Shocking new data reveals Labour’s painfully slow progress on Equal Pay, despite Leader’s promises.
Shocking new data reveals Labour’s painfully slow progress on Equal Pay, despite repeated assurances from the Council Leader that the issue has been resolved.
Labour Leader John Cotton recently claimed on Radio WM that “We have bought that equal pay liability finally to a close”, yet written answers issued on 24 January 2026 show that fewer than one third of job roles have been through the required job evaluation process that started in October 2023. Of the 1,500 roles needing assessment, only 465 have been evaluated and none have been moderated. This makes it increasingly implausible that the council will meet the 31 March 2026 deadline for completing the process.
In October 2023, Labour were forced into action on Job Evaluation by Auditor Statutory Recommendations and the rare use of Finance and Legal officer powers. Despite warnings from the Conservative Opposition—and contrary to previous advice from the Council’s Chief Legal Officer—the Labour Administration chose an elongated approach that risked inflating the Equal Pay liability even further. Full Council agreed a firm deadline of 31 March 2025, but this was later quietly extended by the Labour Administration to 31 March 2026 without returning to councillors who had voted based on those statutory recommendations.
Although the council has made some progress on the two other elements of Equal Pay—the pay and grading system, and a litigation and mitigation strategy for existing liabilities—the crucial Job Evaluation process was the focus of the extraordinary meeting in 2023. Councillors were warned that completing this process was essential to prevent the Equal Pay bill from rising. The continued lack of progress now threatens to undermine the other work and exposes the council to further challenge from unions and equal pay lawyers.
Local Conservatives have raised the alarm about the delays and condemned the Council Leader for misleading the public ahead of the May local elections.
Councillor Ewan Mackey (Con, Sutton Roughley), Deputy Leader of the Opposition Conservative Group, said:
The Auditors and statutory officers could not have been clearer: resolving the Equal Pay liability depends entirely on completing a compliant Job Evaluation process. Labour ignored our warnings in 2017 when they created the liability risk, and they ignored us again in 2023 when - after being dragged into action - they chose the slowest route to compliance. Even then, they failed to meet their own deadlines, extended them by 12 months, and still fell far behind the progress required to hit 31 March 2026. The council now looks set to enter the all out elections in May with Equal Pay still hanging over them, leaving a toxic legacy for the new administration.
Councillor Cotton has a concerning track record of misleading statements on equal pay. When he became Leader he told the press he was “equally surprised to learn” of the liability, despite documents proving he had been briefed the previous February, prior to a budget that rated equal pay risk at 0%. Then, again on Radio WM 12 months ago he said “This brings that whole issue of equal pay to a close” despite at that point neither the settlement or pay and grading had been agreed and the job evaluation process had just been quietly extended by 12 months.
Councillor Ewan Mackey went on to say:
Residents would be well within their rights to ask why they should believe anything the Labour Administration says. Time and again, they have been shown to have been making, at best, highly dubious claims on equal pay progress. This shameless gaslighting treats councillors and residents with contempt. Having created the mess, they have consistently sought to deflect, dissemble and disavow, whilst their dithering has cost the city dearly. The public deserve the truth - and it’s clear only Local Conservatives can clean up Labour’s mess.
Editors Notes
1. Copy of written question below.
2. The Auditors' statutory recommendations and intervention from Finance and Legal Officers are available here and here. These make clear the initial deadline of March 2025 for job evaluation, along with the impact of not hitting that deadline. They also make clear that the liability stems from actions by the Labour administration since 2017, not from previous Administrations.
