Coming Clean in Glasgow
In the days ahead I plan to publish details about the pay of Glasgow City Council's 'comparator' and 'claimant' jobs - both before and after the introduction of the WPBR in 2007.
The purpose of this exercise is to highlight just how much less women were paid than their male colleagues - even when the women were on the same grade, a higher grade or palpably doing work of 'equal value' to the men.
To add insult to injury, the huge pay differences continued after the WPBR was introduced and when you look at things in the cold light of day, it's impossible to conclude anything other than the 'books were cooked' in favour of the male jobs.
How else could Gravediggers, Gardeners and other male dominated jobs be capable of earning more than their women colleagues, both before and after Glasgow's new WPBR pay arrangements came into operation?
As one of the judges, Lady Norris, put the point at the Court of Session hearing, the council clearly “looked after” the men well beyond the protection period.
In which case, everyone needs to know precisely how the men were helped and what affect this had on their pay.
Because Glasgow's women workers were clearly entitled to the same 'help' as the men and what happened to the men is the baseline for any settlement discussions.
Post of Gravedigger - prior to the WPBR
Pre-WPBR Grade - MW 4
Pre-WPBR Contracted Pay - £10,938.53
Bonus Pay - £8,503.80
Total Pay - £20,594.57
Now a Home Carer (MW5) was on a higher grade than a Gravedigger (MW4) before the WPBR was introduced, but the female dominated job was paid much less - and that is the historical basis of people's equal pay claims.
Men being paid much more than women for doing jobs that evidently carry less skill and responsibility.
Because you can't have a female dominated job that is fairly evaluated under an 'objective' job evaluation scheme (JES) and then pay the woman's job much less than a male dominated job which has been given a lower score and grade.
But that is exactly what happened when Glasgow brought in its new WPBR/EDC pay scheme in 2007 and, of course, the big differences in pay between male and female jobs continue to this day.
