About 5,000 female council staff have won their case for equal pay at an employment tribunal.
The women, who include cleaners, cooks and care assistants, were all employed by Birmingham City Council.
Unions said the women may be owed £30m in back-pay because bonuses were paid only to male counterparts. Solicitors said the pay-out could be up to £600m.
The Unison union said it was a “major” victory. The council said the ruling related to its old bonus structure.
Councillor Alan Rudge, cabinet member for equalities and human resources, said the council had removed its “inappropriate bonus schemes” in 2007.
He said it had introduced a revised pay and grading structure which was in line with the Equal Opportunity Commission equality guidelines.
Many people were unhappy with the new deal which unions said left some people £18,000 worse off.
Theresa Daly
About 3,000 council staff went on strike in 2008 over the new pay structure, which Unison said still left women underpaid.
Theresa Daly, of Bordesley Green, Birmingham, has worked as a laundress at the nearby Saltley School for about 25 years.
She said: “I was annoyed. I worked as hard as the men and I had been working a long time.
“To think they were getting paid more than me wasn’t very fair.
“I am glad everything has been sorted and now that we are going to get something out of it, I am very happy.”
Unison said it was difficult to calculate the total amount the council would have to pay out to its female staff as a result of the tribunal, as it would be calculated on an individual basis depending on factors such as length of service and whether they were full or part-time workers.
‘Massive victory’
Both Unison and the GMB union have estimated the pay-out could be in the region of £30m. Unison said the solicitor’s figure of £600m was “mad”.
Paul Doran of Stefan Cross Solicitors said it was a “massive victory” for the women.
He said the tribunal announced that the bonus payments to men were discriminatory and allowed male employees to earn more than £50,000 a year.
The council had believed that refuse collection staff, who were on the same pay grades as the women, deserved special treatment, he added.
The tribunal decided the payments could not be justified since they were being paid to the men for turning up to work and doing their jobs properly, he said.
He also said the tribunal found senior managers at the council had been aware of the problem since as early as 2000 but had not done anything about it.
“The fact that Birmingham City Council simply failed to acknowledge it had a problem should act as a warning to other local authorities who continue to deny their female employees their basic rights.”
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “For too long Birmingham City Council has failed to live up to its responsibilities to pay these women workers fairly.”
He said the council had cost taxpayers a huge amount in legal fees fighting the claims, which would have been better spent providing local services.
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