A row has broken out in Sheffield over the council's equal pay review, with unions accusing the authority of bullying and intimidation. Meanwhile, it has been claimed around two-fifths of local authorities are still to go through the single-status process, despite being required to do so by this April. Last week, Sheffield City Council sent reminder letters to 13,500 workers asking them to accept new pay conditions or face seeing their contracts terminated. The new pay structure – set to be implemented in April 2010 – will see up to 2,000 staff facing pay cuts. Union Unite accused the council of trying to bully staff. A spokeswoman said: ‘The problem is, councils are trying to impose rather than negotiate.' She added this was not an isolated problem and at the last count, 40% of councils still had to go through the process. Sheffield's chief executive, John Mothersole, said accusations of bullying were ‘simply nonsense'. Employees were given a five-week period to sign acceptance forms and the letter was ‘merely' a reminder, he said. ‘It is true that if colleagues choose not to accept their offer, then we will have to terminate their contracts and re-engage with them. This has always been the case.'