A Little Respect



12,500 low paid workers in Glasgow City Council are still fighting for their rights to equal pay and what they could do with, if you ask me, is a little more respect from the city's politicians.

 Now I'm sure that Glasgow's Councillors, MSPs and MPs would all swear blind about how much they respect and admire the low paid foot soldiers who deliver the council's essential front-line services.

 But that's quite different to understanding their case in relation to equal pay and how badly the council's lowest paid workers have been treated over the past 12 years years - under WPBR pay arrangements which Scotland's highest civil court, the Court of Session, condemned as 'unfit for purpose' back in August 2017. 

 Earlier this year, the Claimants' representatives (A4ES, GMB and Unison) organised a special briefing on equal pay for Glasgow MSPs and MPs - to which only two members of parliament turned up and not a single one of the 8 Glasgow constituency MSPs was among them.

 Around the same time, I contacted the Council Leader's office and offered to organise a similar event for senior councillors, on a cross-party basis, potentially, to which the answer was a polite but firm 'No, thank you'. 

 So, if you ask me, there is a real problem over the willingness of Glasgow's politicians to engage with and properly understand the claimants' point of view on a variety of issues such as:
  • the size of the pay gap between traditional male and female council jobs
  • the blatant discrimination involved in the WPBR's notorious 37 hour 'rule'
  • the second class treatment meted out to Cordia staff
  • the role played by senior council officials in relation to the WPBR 
  • how the Council got itself into this mess
  • how the Council gets itself out of this mess
Now these equal pay briefings are not about negotiating directly with the city's politicians - because that's the job of officials and advisers.

But the truth is that the council's senior officials, or some of them at least, are part of the problem which seems rather obvious since they have been defending and justifying the 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme tooth and nail for years. 

So let's hope that in the weeks ahead Glasgow's 100 local Councillors, MSPs and MPs will be prepared to engage and listen - because a little more respect for the Claimants' case will go a long way in helping to resolve this long-running dispute. 

   

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