Glasgow’s Green councillors helped to secured another huge step for a fairer, greener city at our most recent full council meeting this week.

I was delighted that cllr Anthony Carroll’s motion, calling on the council to back the Unite trade union’s Get Me Home Safely campaign was agreed unanimously.

The campaign was inspired by hospitality worker and Unite rep Caitlin Lee and her experience of being sexually assaulted while walking home from work in a city centre hotel which had refused to get her a taxi.

The chamber heard from many others who have experienced feeling vulnerable on their way home from late shifts.

As a result of the motion, the council will now look to strengthen existing licensing policies, encourage employers to act on their duty of care, and improve access to safe, affordable late night transport.

Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman is also taking forward plans for a Members Bill in the Scottish Parliament to put these principles into law.

As we reach the end of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, it is important that we recognise the concerns of women workers and take action to improve their safety.

READ MORE: Hospitality workers' safety campaign gets backing of Glasgow council

It is notable that this campaign came from a trade union, led by a woman, and is centred on the needs of women workers, in one of the most precarious and low-paid sectors in the economy.

Appropriately then, in the same council meeting, we also debated the settling of claims related to sex discrimination in the council’s pay and grading system, which disadvantaged mostly women workers for so long.

This is a momentous step and one which Greens have supported throughout.

Settling these claims should never have been resisted by the previous Labour administration for so long, and it was extremely disappointing that Labour colleagues couldn't show some humility by backing the motion.

In truth, the whole equal pay episode speaks to a time when those in leadership positions were mostly men and they contrived, whether consciously or not, to put men’s interests first.

So as well as celebrating progress, it's also important that we consider the systemic bias that underpins discrimination in our society.

Have things changed so much that we can guarantee discrimination-free policies in the future? And will we always do what's right by our workers, not what's expedient? These are important questions to keep asking ourselves.

The issue is not a direct parallel, but we do have a situation today where the council’s foster carers, many of whom are women, are being denied formal recognition of their chosen trade union.

That’s despite a recent legal judgement that says they have that right. In some cases, those carers are paid around £80 a week less than what it actually costs to support their foster families.

While the battle for pay equality may be won, the fight for respecting all workers’ rights, in a society free from discrimination, must go on.