COUNCIL workers in Birmingham are balloting on a call for strike action over delays to compensation for unequal pay.

The city council faces a bill for £780 million to compensate staff who were disadvantaged by historic gender-based pay inequality.

The local authority has accepted a claim for the money from unions but faces financial problems following 13 years of falling government funding.

General union GMB wants a timetable for payment of the compensation and opened the strike ballot tomorrow.

GMB organiser Rachel Fagan said: “Every single day, thousands of women across Birmingham are going to work and being underpaid because of the council’s failure to value their work properly and fairly. 

“They’re owed millions of pounds from years of stolen wages, but they’ll now be plunged into a Christmas of uncertainty as council bosses refuse to come clean on the plan to pay them what they’re owed.”

The council said it “remains committed to resolving historic equal pay issues and settling all legitimate claims from our employees.”