United Kingdom - Women win more than a billion in equal pay cases - December 31, 2025

Women have won more than £1 billion (€ 1.15 bln) in equal pay they were owed following campaigns by GMB Union. Hundreds of thousands of women working in councils across the country in jobs done mainly by women, such as care, cleaning, catering, are graded lower or have worse terms and conditions than male dominated roles like refuse collection – even when they are of equal value. Thanks to GMB campaigns, thousands of those who were systematically underpaid for years compared to male colleagues have now been paid £ 1.095 billion (€ 1.26 bln) in money they were owed. But as 2026 looms, 40,000 claims remain outstanding across 28 local authorities – likely to run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.