British trade unions and the decision to litigate

During the 2000s, the battle for equal pay in the UK public sector materialised in large numbers of individual legal actions but also, for many women, in class action suits. Unions were partially reponsible for the rise of this latter approach, which allowed collective agreements to be renegotiated in a way that made grading systems fairer and helped many women get significant compensation for past inequalities they had suffered. These cases regularly encountered legal and other obstacles, however, showing how hard it is for union negotiators to counter the systemic gender- based inequality that they face. The end effect is that unions are no longer very interested in re- negotiating equal pay and generally tend to drag their feet before taking adversaries to court.