Glasgow's Damp Squib



Stefan Cross posted this equal pay update on facebook yesterday and, much as expected, settlement meeting Number 19 with Glasgow City Council provided to be a 'damp squib'.

 So for the avoidance of any doubt here is where things now stand:

  • there are currently no 'negotiations' underway with Glasgow City Council
  • there have been no 'negotiations' with Glasgow City Council over the past 9 months
  • there has not been a single thing of substance agreed with Glasgow City Council after 19 separate settlement meetings
  • the Council Side has not responded seriously or constructively to the Pay Gap calculations and the Comparators put forward by the Claimants Side (months ago) 
  • the Council Side insists that 'negotiations' will finally get underway later in the year, perhaps in November, once GCC tables its own belated settlement proposals

If you ask me, the Council is rattled at the success of the Claimants' ongoing campaign for pay justice in Glasgow, the trade union (GMB and Unison) strike ballots that are currently underway and the prospect of the outstanding 12,500 equal pay claims returning to the Glasgow Employment Tribunal on 25th September 2018.


At this rate there is not a 'cat in hell's' chance of agreement   being reached before the end of 2018 which is really not that  surprising, given that GCC's most senior official, Annemarie O'Donnell, can't bring herself to accept publicly the decision of the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, that Glasgow's WPBR pay scheme is 'unfit for purpose'. 

  



MEETING 19 - YAWN FEST.

GCC really are inventing new ways to waste a day.

Apart from the usual boring minutes, action points and draft documents, the main reason for attending was a promise of discussing comparators. Unfortunately, we got nothing in advance and when we got there we were simply presented with a sheet of yeses and noes based on the suggestions we made 4 months ago. No explanation for the noes. (And the list is confidential so I can’t say which were yes/no).

We did the best we could at such short notice but To cut a long story short, the officers agreed that substantial work needs to be redone, and they need to go away, reconsider both our previous suggestions and their response, and how best to deal with them going forward.

So not a terrible meeting, not a brilliant meeting, just a long boring YAWN.

Good for my air miles but not much else.


Stefan Cross

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