Three equal pay claims linked to Cumbria's two councils have been thrown out by an employment tribunal.
The claims were part of a much wider case involving around 2,500 council workers, but were struck out after a mistake over which authority should be sued.
Nicola Tomlinson, Carole Robertson and Joanne Dawson had brought claims against Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council.
The two councils replaced the former Cumbria County Council following local government reorganisation.
A preliminary hearing at Manchester Employment Tribunal heard that, at an early stage, lawyers for the unions and councils agreed each claim should only continue against the authority which was the worker’s current or most recent employer.
Claims were then withdrawn against the authority believed not to be the correct respondent.
But Employment Judge Cookson said: "It seems that a mistake had (been) made and these three claimants had withdrawn their claims against the wrong council."
She added: "They had withdrawn their claims against their employing council."
Those withdrawn claims were formally dismissed in January 2025.
New claim forms were later lodged on behalf of the three claimants in November 2025.
The tribunal said the new claims were in 'identical' terms to the claims which had previously been withdrawn.
The councils applied for the fresh claims to be struck out.
They argued the same complaints could not be brought again because the earlier claims had already been withdrawn and dismissed.
The claimants argued they should still be able to pursue claims relating to a later period of pay.
But Judge Cookson ruled that the new claims were, in substance, the same as the previous ones.
She found they involved the same work, the same comparators and no alleged change in the work being carried out.
The judge concluded the claims were barred by the legal principle known as cause of action estoppel and by Rule 51 of the Employment Tribunal Rules.
She said the claims were 'an abuse of process' and had been brought unreasonably.
The three claims were struck out.
The claimants were also ordered to jointly pay the councils' legal costs of £6,095.67 plus VAT.
The judgment does not make a finding about who was responsible for the original mistake.
However, it records that the three claimants were union members represented by Thompsons solicitors, and that the wrong claims were withdrawn during the handling of the wider equal pay litigation.
The tribunal also noted that the costs application was not resisted once the councils' strike-out application succeeded, and that there was no suggestion it should consider the claimants' ability to pay because the claims were trade union-backed.
The ruling affects only these three claims. It is not a decision on the merits of the wider equal pay case involving council workers.
