A NORTH-EAST council has lost the latest round of a legal battle over equal pay involving thousands of female caterers and care workers.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is one of 12 local authorities - many of them in the North-East - facing equal pay claims by more than 10,000 female workers.

It is already attempting to fend off at least six cases involving women who are seeking pay parity with male workers.

Yesterday, judges at the Court of Appeal in London ruled against Redcar on a central legal issue, which could lead to a final resolution of many of the equal pay claims, which all relate to employment before April 1, 2004

Council lawyers had argued that, for the purposes of assessing pay equality, female workers could only compare themselves with men in the same work grade.

John Cavanagh, QC, representing Redcar, said comparisons could not legally be made with men whose jobs were graded lower, even if they received more pay than women in the higher grade.

But in dismissing the council's challenge to an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in July, Lord Justice Maurice Kay described such arguments as "surprising".

The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Mummery and Lord Justice Wilson, ruled that female workers are entitled to compare themselves with higher-paid men in lower work grades.

He said the council could point to no other "genuine material factor which is not the difference in sex" to justify any inequality in pay.

Yesterday's decision does not bring an end to what Lord Justice Kay described as a network of equal pay litigation faced by Redcar and other local authorities.

Eleven councils in the North-East have already paid out £100m as a result of equal pay claims.

Meanwhile, Redcar, along with Middlesbrough Borough Council in a similar case, is challenging other Employment Appeal Tribunal decisions "of some complexity concerning pay protection in the context of the Equal Pay Act", the judge said. Those appeals have yet to be heard.

A spokesman for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council claimed yesterday's ruling would only affect a handful of female employees.

He said: "We are disappointed with the verdict, but as the judge explained this is just one aspect in a network of equal pay litigations against us which we are continuing to defend."