Catherwood LibraryILR School

Thousands of council workers in Glasgow, Scotland, proceeded with their plans to conduct a 48-hour strike today, closing hundreds of schools and nurseries, and affecting the availability of home care services. Museums, leisure services and libraries will remain open but cafes and cleaning services could be disrupted. At issue are approximately 12,000 claims of unequal pay, despite a job evaluation plan introduced more than a decade ago that was supposed to alleviate pay inequality. Instead, jobs that were declared to be of equal value are still being paid inequally between female-dominated and male-dominated industries. The local authority had announced in January that it planned to reach a negotiated settlement to the claims, but local unions say there have been no progress despite 21 meetings in the past 10 months. Activist group Action 4 Equality estimates that backdated claims and pay increases could eventually cost between 500 million and 1 billion euros; the council disputes that number but admits that financial challenges exist.