COUNCIL chiefs are refusing to settle a long-running strike for fear of triggering an equal pay claim, Unison local government conference heard today.

Barnet Unison mental health worker Helen Davies poured scorn on the Labour-run authority as she backed a motion calling on the union to become the most powerful advocate for ending the gender pay gap.

Speaking on their 61st day of strike action over a disparity in retention pay between mental health workers and their colleagues in children’s services, she said the authority had told her mostly female colleagues: “We can’t pay you because we are afraid of an equal pay claim.