Strike Action and Equal Pay
Over recent days there's been lots of talk about whether a strike or some other form of industrial action can play a useful role in the fight for equal pay in Glasgow.
The claimants are angry and frustrated and they have every right to be over the shabby way they've been treated for many years.
I've had plenty of experience of dealing with industrial action over the years and the fact is strikes are a very blunt instrument - not something to be entered into lightly.
What specific demands would be made to the City Council and what exactly would a strike aim to achieve?
For example, an industrial action ballot could be called over a demand that the City Council agrees to replace its 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme which the current crop of senior officials seem intent on defending at all costs.
So there's a lot of hard thinking to be done and the local trade unions (who would have to call and organise an industrial action ballot) would surely have to coordinate their plans and try to build as much support as possible.
But the aim of any industrial action ballot is not actually to end up going on strike - instead it's about getting an unreasonable, capricious employer to concede to your demands.
I can think of nothing more unreasonable than Glasgow City Council trying desperately to retain a WPBR pay scheme which has been branded as 'unfit for purpose' by the highest civil court in Scotland, the Court of Session.
Glasgow's 'Bride of Frankenstein' Pay Monster (21/02/18)
Stefan Cross posted a rather bleak assessment of the latest 'settlement' meeting with senior officials of Glasgow City Council.
Now speaking as Unison's former Head of Local Government (Scotland) and lead negotiator with COSLA on behalf of the joint trade unions, this doesn't seem much like a meeting of the minds to me - more like a case of 'heads we win, tails you lose'.
Reading between the lines, senior council officials are still trying to defend the WPBR pay monster they created in 2007 which has been since been characterised as 'unfit for purpose' in a damning judgment from the highest civil court in Scotland, the Court of Session.
Yet, incredibly, instead of apologising for this appalling mess and for the way the claimants have been treated for the past 10 years, senior officials seem to think they can tinker around with the WPBR, make some minor changes to the scheme and then everyone will manage to live happily ever after.
In other words, the 'Bride of Frankenstein' might just succeed where the original Pay Monster failed!
But this is nonsense if you ask me, because the WPBR has been condemned as 'unfit for purpose' by the highest court in the land and clearly has to be replaced by a completely new pay and JES scheme - one which is transparent, consistent and fair.
Unfortunately, this seems impossible to achieve if senior council officials are intent on defending their own indefensible pay scheme and past mistakes in Glasgow which have cost the claimants dearly.
If so, maybe the time has finally come to consider taking industrial action and bring these issues to a head.
I have had more experience than most people of organising industrial action, and it's not a 'magic bullet' for achieving a settlement to this long-running equal pay dispute, but there does come a time when people have got to make a stand.
My own view is that the prospect of industrial action in Glasgow will ensure that the city's elected politicians start to take the fight for equal pay a whole lot more seriously than they have done up until now.
“BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD”
Meeting 6 with the council. This is the council officers own description of where they are - back to the drawing board.
No progress. No decisions, no responses no proposals.
They are obsessed with process. Don’t get me wrong process is important but it’s chicken and egg. The decisions inform the process. We have provided “terms of reference » but these are not yet agreed.
Meeting 6 with the council. This is the council officers own description of where they are - back to the drawing board.
No progress. No decisions, no responses no proposals.
They are obsessed with process. Don’t get me wrong process is important but it’s chicken and egg. The decisions inform the process. We have provided “terms of reference » but these are not yet agreed.
We are to be joined by a new officer, or even two. A project manager and someone from finance. But they haven’t yet sorted out what resources they are going to devote to the project, let alone settlement.
They seem to work on the basis that we’ve booked 12 months of meetings so we are going to use them all. If we’d booked 2 years of meetings I think they’d plan to use all of them too! The council officers have no urgency. If I’m being charitable I think the budget process is taking priority but that’s a false sense of priorities. It’s short term thinking all the time.
We have a psychology barrier to progress. The officers think they only lost on a technicality and still want us to “prove” who has been discriminated against. They also are afraid to take decisions unless there is certainty. They are afraid someone could come along and tell them they got it wrong and paid too much. They don’t seem to understand compromise at all. Unfortunately Susan Aitken says she has full confidence in these officers. It’s not a confidence I share.
Strangely the atmosphere at the meeting was better than meeting 5. And there was some progress in that threats of imposing solutions on us were withdrawn.
I should also say it’s not all bad. The council officers may be going back to the drawing board but the claimant team has not wasted these 10 weeks. We have, for the first time ever, been working as one group.
They seem to work on the basis that we’ve booked 12 months of meetings so we are going to use them all. If we’d booked 2 years of meetings I think they’d plan to use all of them too! The council officers have no urgency. If I’m being charitable I think the budget process is taking priority but that’s a false sense of priorities. It’s short term thinking all the time.
We have a psychology barrier to progress. The officers think they only lost on a technicality and still want us to “prove” who has been discriminated against. They also are afraid to take decisions unless there is certainty. They are afraid someone could come along and tell them they got it wrong and paid too much. They don’t seem to understand compromise at all. Unfortunately Susan Aitken says she has full confidence in these officers. It’s not a confidence I share.
Strangely the atmosphere at the meeting was better than meeting 5. And there was some progress in that threats of imposing solutions on us were withdrawn.
I should also say it’s not all bad. The council officers may be going back to the drawing board but the claimant team has not wasted these 10 weeks. We have, for the first time ever, been working as one group.
Action4Equality and both unions UNISON and GMB, ONE VOICE in front of the council. This has already paid dividends as the council has tried to split us, but so far without success.
We are also not waiting for the council. We are preparing to go back to tribunal if necessary and we have arranged a joint meeting of the barristers for all three claimant groups tomorrow. Again the first time ever.
I have said many times - this will be a long hard slog. It’s enormously frustrating but we need to be patient. FWIW (For what it's worth) I don’t think strike action is the right call yet.
Negotiations are not a linear process. It can be slog slog slog and then a tipping point happens. It’s impossible to predict when that might be, but I still have hope.
We are also not waiting for the council. We are preparing to go back to tribunal if necessary and we have arranged a joint meeting of the barristers for all three claimant groups tomorrow. Again the first time ever.
I have said many times - this will be a long hard slog. It’s enormously frustrating but we need to be patient. FWIW (For what it's worth) I don’t think strike action is the right call yet.
Negotiations are not a linear process. It can be slog slog slog and then a tipping point happens. It’s impossible to predict when that might be, but I still have hope.
