A COUNCIL hit squad is set to raid individual schools’ kitties because the city’s headteachers are refusing to pay a £15m equal pay bill.

The row has broken out over the multi-million pound estimated cost the local authority must meet in order to settle equal pay claims for cooks and cleaners.

But last night angry school leaders accused the council of passing the buck.

The national pay discrimination issue dates back to the 70s and 80s when bonuses were introduced to deal with low pay.

Across all sectors in the city, around 7,000 workers, mostly women, are set to receive an average £8,500 each as part of the total £60m claim.

In March, the Daily Post revealed how the council intended to ask all the city’s schools to meet the £15m “legitimate charge” between them.

The council’s favoured mechanism to do this was to collectively take £750,000 a year from schools for 20 years.

But the plan has been given short shrift by the city’s headteacher representative body, the Liverpool Schools Forum, which fears the move would place extra strain on already tight budgets.

However, a new report warns “if agreement is not forthcoming” then the council will round on individual governing bodies whose schools are at the centre of the inequality cases and recuperate the money in separate raids.