SCHOOL dinner ladies are among 140 female employees fighting for equal pay from their council employers.

Joining the dinner ladies were their supervisors, school cleaners and home helps, who all say they should receive about £33 a week more to bring their pay in line with male manual workers at Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

Last year, an employment tribunal upheld claims they had been unfairly denied an attendance allowance, which male workers doing equivalent jobs receive.

But last July, the Employment Appeal Tribunal overturned the decision, leaving the women - represented by barrister Tess Gill - furious.

Yesterday, Mrs Gill challenged the appeal tribunal ruling as "wrong in law and fundamentally flawed".

The barrister said that the tribunal wrongly accepted a claim by the council that if the women were awarded a pay rise, it would place an unfair burden on taxpayers.

This was a wholly improper consideration, insisted Mrs Gill.

Three judges heard that the women had already successfully fought for a bonus worth 40 per cent of their annual pay that their male counterparts, who include gardeners and refuse collectors, receive.

Recognising the importance of the case, Lord Justice Buxton, sitting with Lord Justice Dyson and Lord Justice Maurice Kay, reserved his decision and did not specify when he would give a judgement.