How West Sussex led the way on job evaluation

Local government harmonisation, part 2: Case study

Back in 1994, public service union Unison reached a record-breaking settlement in a long-running dispute with West Sussex County Council over equal pay for 1,500 school welfare assistants - claimed by the union to be worth £1.2 million a year in increased salaries, rising to £2.3 million over four years¹. The welfare assistants, an overwhelmingly female-dominated group, compared their work with that of five male library driver/messengers and a male search-room supervisor.