A GROUP of clerical assistants who were denied equal pay compensation could finally have landed a blow against the council.

The small band who work mainly in school offices have faced an uphill struggle for years looking for a payout from Inverclyde Council after being told their claims were time barred.

But thanks to councillors campaigning on their behalf their cases will be reconsidered again.

Councillor Lynne Quinn forced a rethink at a full council meeting after arguing passionately in their defence.

She won support round the table and the matter it is now going back to be considered again.

One of the women affected said: "It looks like we finally have some hope now.

"Before it looked dead in the water.

"We can't thank Councillor Quinn and Councillor Ronnie Ahlfeld, (pictured), enough for all their hard work.

"If it wasn't for them we wouldn't have come this far.

"We were really pleased with support from Councillor David Wilson as well and they are looking at it again.

"There has been a real injustice here - we should have been given the correct information in the first place."

Historically there was an equal pay gap of 38 per cent which gave way to a new pay and grading model introduced by Inverclyde Council back in 2010.

Four years later Inverclyde Council reached agreement with the unions and started to pay out compensation.

But one particular group of clerical assistants were left out in the cold because they were not in the union.

At first they were told they were not eligible for compensation.

At the full council meeting Cllr Quinn said that when the office workers later discovered others had been paid out they went back to human resources bosses.

At this point they were told that they were too late because they had to lodge a claim with an employment tribunal and the deadline had passed.

They then took the only avenue open to them, which was to raise a grievance, and this took 18 months to conclude.

Councillor Quinn argued they had been misinformed and were not time barred.

She added: "The biggest injustice here is that these female employees are now working alongside colleagues with similar service, salaries and duties yet some have been paid out and others are still fighting."