By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

Hundreds of NHS workers in Tayside and Fife are pursuing equal pay claims, with individuals seeking settlements of several thousand pounds.

They believe their employers have discriminated against people doing similar types of work for different rates of pay, and say discrimination led to years of underpaying.

The claims are being pursued by Action 4 Equality, a “no win, no fee” outfit contacted by thousands of people across the UK who believe they are victims of pay discrimination and are seeking settlements back dated over five years.

Mark Irvine, the organisation’s spokesman in Scotland, said yesterday Action 4 Equality had 103 claims “in the pipeline” from NHS Tayside employees and 299 from NHS Fife employees.

Claims are being pursued through the employment tribunal system.

He said tradesmen who looked after NHS buildings were earning more than nurses with more qualifications and more responsibility. Traditionally male jobs attracted better wages than those usually undertaken by the largely female NHS workforce.

NHS Tayside’s own figure for those pursuing equal pay claims through the employment tribunal system was 134, higher than Mr Irvine’s, which would indicate some employees are pursuing cases as individuals rather than signing up for the group approach of Action 4 Equality.

Every NHS employee in Scotland who is not a doctor is going through Agenda for Change, a mammoth process reviewing jobs and pay in an attempt to remove inequalities and ensure people doing the same work get the same pay.

The process has dragged on for years and while some have still to be given their new pay scales, others have now been re-graded and the cash consequences have worked through to their wages and salaries.

But Action 4 Change claims the Agenda for Change process is a mechanism for avoiding equal pay claims, pursued through the employment tribunal system.

Last night NHS Tayside’s director of human resources Alan Boyter said Agenda for Change was designed to ensure the NHS had arrangements in place that complied with equal pay legislation.

Mr Boyter warned pursuing claims through the legal system could take years.

He said employers were confident the arrangements would allow them to “resist” any equal pay claims in the future.

Meanwhile, because equal pay could be claimed retrospectively for up to five years, some were making claims in a bid to avoid losing the “opportunity” to do so later—but he did not expect that to be a quick route to cash settlements.