Charities and campaigners have criticised Glasgow Council for attempting to claw-back £10m in council tax debts from women awarded equal pay settlements.

The council said it was planning to recoup £10m from 200 workers, with some having their entire awards – which average £35,000 – snatched.

The council said the move was agreed with claimants’ representatives and approved by councillors.

It comes after Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, announced last week that the payments would address a “historic wrong.”

However Emma Ritch, director of Engender, said the council was “righting a wrong with one hand and taking from women with the other”.

“Many of the women will have got into financial difficulty precisely because they weren’t getting equal pay for equal work,” she said.

Campaigners argue that the women would not have been in debt in the first place had they been paid fairly.

The vast majority of the workers are carers, caterers and cleaners, employed on the bottom rungs of the local government pay spine.

Stefan Cross, a lawyer from Action 4 Equality, which represents thousands of women, said the council lacked sensitivity over the issue.

“The principle of people paying for their debts we have no problem with,” he said. “Our problem is how they have gone about it, and their lack of flexibility and empathy with people in difficult circumstances.

“They were incorruptible and dogmatic in the way they went about it.”

Some women have already had debt collectors and bailiffs sent to their home while others with agreed payment plans have still had money taken.

The city council said that debt collectors were held off once it knew a case was going to be settled. A spokesman said: “This is standard for any claim and part of the approach agreed with claimants’ representatives and subsequently approved by committee in February.”