COUNCIL leader Susan Aitken has thanked the council officers who have worked to deliver equal pay for Glasgow's women.

She spoke as it was announced this afternoon that Glasgow City Council and claimant group represented by Action4Equality, UNISON, GMB and UNITE have reached a settlement for thousands of female workers.

The agreement in principle is to a package of payments to resolve historical claims for unequal pay, resolving more than a decade of dispute.

Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "Almost exactly a year since the City Government led on the hugely significant step of abandoning many years of litigation on Equal Pay, I am delighted that the council and claimants representatives have agreed an offer which I will recommend to committee for their approval in the coming weeks.

Read More: Glasgow equal pay agreement has been reached

“We were clear that this was always likely to take at least a year and the sheer volume of cases involved and the complexity of the Council’s pay and grading arrangements were such that this was never going to be easy.

"My commitment to resolving this issue has never wavered and I have never needed to be convinced of the case for equality.

“I would like to thank each and every council officer who has been involved in this at times extremely challenging process, the claimants’ representatives who have steadfastly represented their members and clients throughout and the claimants themselves for their patience.

“After a decade of obstruction and inaction, in a relatively short space of time we have now reached agreement which delivers the pay justice these women long have fought for.

Read More: Glasgow Equal Pay Dispute: Deal to settle Glasgow City Council cases is imminent

"I am proud to be able to recommend a settlement to right this historic injustice and I trust colleagues across the Chambers will support this deal and the work we must undertake to address the future challenges it places before us.”

Council bosses said this does not mean the end of the process as a number of steps still require to be taken before payments are made.

These steps include:

•Seeking approval for the deal from members of Glasgow City Council

•Seeking approval from the claimants

•Completing the process of raising the funding to meet the cost

•Finalising various technical agreements around, for example, how and when the money is paid to claimants.

This means that while payments will be decided in this calendar year they will be made in the next financial year.

Stefan Cross QC from Action4equality said. “Since the strike there has been real and constructive negotiations.

"Neither side has got everything it wanted and both sides have made serious concessions so that we can both be satisfied that this is a fair deal.

"Once the settlements have been processed both sides are committed to completing the new job evaluation study and devising a fair and lawful remuneration package that fairly and properly remunerates the work done by Glasgow’s wonderful dedicated workforce.

"No further litigation will take place whilst that task is being completed."