North Lanarkshire
As I said the other day, things are definitely heating up in North Lanarkshire as the leadership of the Council comes under further pressure to explain and justify its extraordinary behaviour in relation to equal pay.
Here's a press release, kindly sent to me by a local newspaper, from the SNP group on the Council which stormed out of a meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee yesterday in protest at the secrecy and censorship surrounding the whole business of equal pay.
Good for them, I say!
And although it is shameful that a Labour-run Council is acting in this way, the more people who get behind the present campaign the sooner everything will be resolved.
SNP STORM OUT OVER EQUAL PAY SECRECY. ELECTED COUNCILLORS KEPT IN DARK.
North Lanarkshire SNP Group walked out of a meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee today (Thursday) in protest at the Council’s handling of outstanding equal pay claims.
Outside the Civic Centre in Motherwell,a giant Trade Union float demanded movement by the Council on pay claims and activists handed out leaflets.
Said SNP Group Depute Leader Councillor Tom Johnston: “Elected members are being kept in the dark over equal pay negotiations. We were not prepared to approve yet another secret decision behind closed doors,with councillors gagged and sworn to silence. Our move against exclusion of press and public was defeated 9 – 6 and that was the signal to take no further part.
“These negotiations are supposed to be handled through a member/officer working group of 4 Labour,1 SNP and 1 Independent. The trouble is that these councillors are forbidden to discuss the business with colleagues in their party groupings. This is a secret process,given a veneer of democracy.
“Both SNP and Labour groups were told on Monday of a secret document to be discussed at today’s P&R meeting. No notice was given. The Report would be revealed on the spot. A vote would be forced through with minimal time for real consideration or reflection and no opportunity whatsoever to discuss the contents as a political party group. The report would then be physically retrieved from each individual councillor by Council officials after the vote. Councillors were being treated like children.
“Over recent weeks,Councillors had been embarrassed at their surgeries when lobbied by angry council workers and been forced to admit they had been told nothing by the Council about equal pay.”
“There can be a need for confidentiality in negotiations,but councillors have to be brought into the process. Council workers are our constituents.”
The SNP walk-out occurred at item 25,the final agenda item. Earlier,at Item 10, an SNP motion calling for a speedier resolution of outstanding pay claims and a Council commitment to positive negotiations was defeated 9 – 6. That set the scene for full confrontation at item 25. The SNP motion read:
“With regard to paragraph 3.10, North Lanarkshire Council,having recently admitted to being unable to defend the job evaluations of groups of its workers,should now move quickly to settle outstanding claims in the long-running dispute over equal pay.
We note that almost all local authorities in Scotland have either settled these claims or are in the process of reaching final settlements with their staff.
The Council should now indicate that it is looking to resolve this matter of equal pay,rather than allowing the Employment Tribunal,which has already suffered delays,to carry on for several more months. Many of the staff waiting on the claims are amongst the lowest-paid employees of the Council.”
Moved by Cllr Tom Johnston and seconded by Cllr David Baird.
What's the Big Secret? (5 June 2014)
I've just learned that North Lanarkshire Council is have an extra special meeting on equal pay tomorrow (Thursday 5 June) at 2pm in Motherwell Civic Centre.
Now this is a meeting with a difference because apparently:
- the public and press are being excluded
- the papers are not being circulated in advance
- instead the papers are being tabled on the day
- the papers are being collected back in and can't be taken away
So what's all the secrecy and furtiveness about because job evaluation and its underlying pay arrangements is supposed to be an open and transparent business - one which the Council workforce and taxpayers can have confidence in are far, as the use of public money is concerned.
In other words this is the opposite of local democracy with elected councillors being 'gagged' and the wider public prevented from knowing what's really going on as far as equal pay is concerned.
And the fact that an Employment Tribunal is still underway is neither here nor there because the Council has already admitted making a complete hash of job evaluation and the pay arrangements that flow from the application of its job evaluation scheme (JES).
Yet, so far at least, no one has been held accountable for this debacle and no one will if meetings keep being held in secret where senior officials and politicians are being protected from effective scrutiny of their actions.
'What can people in do about this scandalous carry on?', I hear readers ask.
Well local councillors can spill the beans obviously and even if papers are being gathered back in there's nothing to stop elected politicians from taking notes and 'whistleblowing' the contents of the papers - unless North Lanarkshire has turned into some kind of police state, so word is bound to get out.
If I were a senior member of staff within the Council, I would definitely consider making a formal whistleblowing complaint because this provides people with legal protection if they are exposing wrongdoing.
Council workers and equal pay claimants can lobby the Council meeting although at 2pm in the afternoon, of course, most people will be at their work.
The only good news is that this kind of bizarre behaviour simply confirms that North Lanarkshire is digging an ever deeper hole for itself over equal pay, but keep up the pressure because that's the best way to make the Council come to its senses.
