AN equal pay campaigner has claimed female workers in Northumberland are suffering ill health, as well as losing out on income.

Lyn Murray has pressed for answers to questions on equal pay from Northumberland County Council for two-and-a-half years, but says “nothing has happened”.

Now Lyn, 61, of Haltwhistle, who works as a care worker for the local authority, says chiefs’ failure to address the concern is costing female workers dearly, as they struggle to cope with the stress of their situation. Only one female worker from a group of nine women Lyn works with has been given the same pay as men.

Lyn said: “Everybody has let us down. Unequal pay like this is discrimination. It seems to me they don’t want to know and they don’t want to listen.

“A lot of the girls who have taken voluntary redundancy have taken it because they refuse to work for Northumberland County Council any more.

“And they are getting stress problems. You can manage short, sharp knocks easier than you can manage something that’s going on and on.”

Lyn’s criticism of the council’s approach comes after the authority announced a long-overdue shake-up of pay and employment conditions for 11,000 workers. Council bosses are expected to meet with union representatives tomorrow.

Ian Fleming, Unison joint branch secretary for Northumberland, said: “Hopefully we will be in a position where we can take it to our members following Thursday’s meeting. I would hope it’s quite close to completion on both sides. Hopefully on the equal pay issue as well. But one never knows on equal pay, that could just drag on and on.

“Single status and equal pay are massively different issues.

“There are still settlements that the council is haggling around where the offers were way under what they should have been.

“At the end of the day it will be down to the members and whether they accept the changes in terms and conditions. Before then, it really hinges on what we are told on Thursday.” Northumberland County Council said in a statement on Monday that it was “totally committed to a fair, consistent and transparent pay and grading system for all employees” but would not comment further yesterday.

At a public meeting of council workers in Hexham on Monday evening, Hexham Conservative MP Guy Opperman pledged to press the workers’ case in conjunction with an action group at local level and, if necessary, take it to Equal Pay Minister Theresa May.

The MP said Haltwhistle care workers presented an important case among the 1,000 still to be settled.