The council said no successful pay claims had yet been made

Unite said 250 workers at Coventry City Council could make a claim after the union won the tribunal case, and this could prompt other UK-wide claims.

The tribunal took place after it was found that female staff were being paid less than their male colleagues.

"No successful equal pay claims have yet been made," the council insisted.

The local authority said the tribunal found in part for the claimants and in part for the council when the judgment came through on Friday.

It added that the tribunal supported its Pay Protection Scheme introduced as part of single-status arrangements aimed at protecting the pay of workers whose salaries had been re-graded.

In a statement, it said: "At this stage we do not face any financial liability - no successful equal pay claims have yet been made.

"Claimants must now prove to the tribunal that they have an equal value claim for back pay."

'Insult to women'

The union said that the tribunal's ruling means that some women earning up to �140 a week less than their male counterparts could be in line to receive up to �40,000 to make up for the past six years.

Tony Higham, the union's regional officer, said: "Our members have waited a long time for justice to be done as these claims were registered in 2005, but their resolve has never faltered.

"We are now calling on Coventry Council to pay up. To appeal against this decision would not only be a further waste of rate-payers' money, but an insult to the women we depend on to feed our children and look after our elderly."