UNION chiefs are urging Middlesbrough Council employees to join a campaign for equal pay by attending a public meeting.

The GMB says a number of claims are being pursued in the Teesside area and it wants to drum up support for measures to improve wages for low paid council workers.

Regional secretary Kevin Curran said: "Equality issues and equal pay in particular are at the forefront of GMB's concern about pay and conditions in local authorities.

"Many of our members receive scandalously low pay and suffer enormous inequality when compared with other council employees.

"The employers should be in no doubt that the GMB is committed to ending low pay in local government and will do so through the courts if necessary."

Union lawyers and regional organisers will be among the speakers at the meeting in Middlesbrough Town Hall, on Monday, at 5.30pm.

A council spokesman said: "The council is bound by national terms and conditions and the wage bargaining mechanism."