Yesterday, the council announced that the council will have to pay up to £760 million to settle equal pay claims despite knowing for years, and opposition Councillors, officers and even their own GMB union raising concerns.
Having ‘settled’ equal pay claims with the Labour run council paying £1.1bn over the past decade after a supreme court ruling in 2012, it is evident they never seem to learn.
This extra bill the council has ‘just found’ is greater than the total revenue they receive a year- and is increasing by £14m a month.
Michelle Mcrossin of the GMB Union emphasised the Labour council were aware of issues but decided not to act ‘kicking the can down the road’ with their dangerous negligence costing residents another £250mil.
‘Dangerously Negligent’
Labour’s dangerous inaction has left residents facing considerable service cuts, significant Council Tax increases and even threatening the future of the city.
Why didn’t labour prevent this? The Labour Leadership have been aware of this issue, at the very least from November 2021, but we have seen no action to prevent or lessen the impact to families. Labour couldn’t even bring up the crisis when union representatives met with directors, were they purposely trying to hide the truth, that they failed to act upon a crisis which will affect those who need the council most?
Only last year Labour promised a golden decade, yet only one year later they are plunging the largest council in Europe into financial disrepute and chaos, through ‘their mismanagement of our taxes and assets is destroying the future of our city’.
As I put to the BBC and the Birmingham Mail ‘their mismanagement of our taxes and assets is destroying the future of our city’.