Bonus Culture


In recent days the news has been dominated by all the talk about bankers and their  'bonus culture'.

So I thought I'd take a moment to remind readers of another bonus culture - which hasn't received so much attention - form the media, our politicians or the trade unions.

The bonus culture that has formed the basis of thousands of low paid counci workers' equal pay claims - the bonus culture that turned a blind eye to the fact that many traditional male jobs - were being paid £9, £10 and £11 an hour for years.

While lots of female dominated jobs were being paid only £6 an hour - just because they didn't enjoy a weekly bonus payment.

Now why were the male jobs paid a bonus - of 50% and sometimes more - on top of their basic hourly rate?

A good question.

Because the council employers and trade unions agreed to sweep these old-fashioned and discredited pay arrangements away - as they blatantly discriminated against the jobs done predominantly by women.

Needless to say these bonuses were not linked to performance - the men were paid bonuses simply for tunring up to their work.

And long ago as 1997 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - and in 1999 in Scotland - the employers and trade unions agreed to end this male only bonus culture - but then did nothing about it for many a long year.

Now the women's jobs that were at the bottom of the heap were hard, often very responsible and sometimes highly skilled jobs - carers, classroom assistants, clerical workers, cleaners and catering workers.

Jobs that you would easily compare favourably with lots of relatively unskilled, traditional male jobs - such as street sweepers, refuse workers and gardeners.

So while no one would run down the jobs done by men - the big question, the unanswerable question was - 'How could the council employers and the trade unions possibly justify the male jobs being paid so much more?

The big pay differentials between male and female jobs were not imposed by the government - or aliens from outer space - they were negotiated and maintained by the council employers and the trade unions.

Many of the councils were big Labour dominated councils and - of course - all of the unions involved were big Labour supporters as well.

Many MPs and MSPs came from a council background - many MPs and MSPs came from a trade union background - on the Labour side anyway.

Yet with all this wealth of experience and talent available - not one of them took the side of thousands of low paid women when it came to the fight for equal pay - in Scotland or elsewhere.

The amount of money involved is huge - hundreds of millions of pounds yets the politicians and the trade unions have hardly raised a word in anger.

Which is why I smile to myself when I hear politicians - working themselves up into a terrible lather about a bonus culture.

Because this one's been staring them straight in the face for years.

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