Pin Money


Pin Money (2 July 2012)

The trade unions are getting themselves into to terrible fankle over equal pay in South Lanarkshire - if my mail box is anything to go by.

Apparently lots of members are up in arms about the comments of the one union branch secretary - Stephen Smellie - which I reported on the blog site yesterday (via the Hamilton Advertiser).

See post dated 1 July 2012 - 'Foot And Mouth'.

One angry union member dropped me a note to say:

"I have never contacted you before but I was appalled at the comments from Stephen Smellie. I cannot believe his negative comments regarding the female workforce. It is like something from the dark ages. Does he not have a mother, wife or daughter? To think that this fight is all to do with a new three piece suite shows us what he thinks of women."

I was rather taken aback at the comments as well I have to admit - in fact it reminded me the old phrase 'pin money'.

Which was a term used in the 1960s by people who derided the fight for equal pay - because they wrongly labelled women as working for 'pin money' - or the little extra things in life.

The implication being that male jobs were more important - because men were the real breadwinners in the household.

Anyone who has seen the film 'Made In Dagenham' will know what I mean - where the fight for equal pay in 1968 against the Ford Car Company (and some in the unions) - led directly to the 1970 Equal Pay Act.

South Lanarkshire Council's job evaluation scheme (JES) - which is how the council decides to pay male and female jobs of course - has recently been declared as unfit for purpose or 'not to be relied upon' by the Employment Tribunals.

In other words the council's JES does not comply with the 1970 Equal Pay Act - which is exactly what I've been saying for years.

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