Glasgow's Fight for Equal Pay
I have taken a break from blogging in recent days as I've had other demands on my time this week.
I have to say it has been good to take a step back and reflect upon what the Claimants have achieved in 2018.
Because this time last year Glasgow (in December 2017) was preparing for a further hearing in the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, where the Council was trying to overturn the 'unfit for purpose' decision against its WPBR pay scheme.
So while it's frustrating and disappointing that a settlement to this long-running dispute is still not within our grasp, there is a great deal for the Claimants to be proud of - not least their determination to stand up to the Council's bullying and bull crap.
In the run up to the festive break I'll be looking back on 2018 and looking forward to 2019 - while assessing the prospects of a just settlement of Glasgow's equal pay claims in the New Year.
If regular readers have thoughts, message or ideas they'd like to share, then drop me a note (in confidence of course) to: markirvine@compuserve.com
In the meantime, here's a post from the blog site archive which sums up what the Council was up to, just weeks ago, with its 'Here Comes Santa Claus' strategy.
'Here Comes Santa Claus' (08/11/18)
Glasgow City Council has a peculiar approach to conflict resolution which is all about throwing its weight around.
For months equal pay settlement talks were going round and round in circles, until in August the Council announced there would be no negotiations and that senior officials would come back in December with a Council offer to end its long-running equal pay dispute.
Now this 'Hear Comes Santa Claus' strategy must have been approved in advance by the Council's chief executive, Annemarie O'Donnell, who presumably expected the Claimants to respond with generous applause, wild celebrations and general acclaim.
But that's not how negotiations work, of course, which ought to have been obvious to any reasonable person - just as any reasonable person could also tell you that Glasgow's 37 hour 'rule' was deliberately designed to discriminate against the City Council's largely female workforce.
So the Claimants are not going to sit back and wait on the wise old heads in the Council returning in December with settlement proposals that GCC can 'afford', as opposed to an agreement based on what the claimants are 'due' and which has been negotiated in good faith with the Claimants Representatives.
Nobody's that stupid and in just in case Annemarie O'Donnell doesn't know it already - Glaswegians don't believe in Santa Claus and Glaswegian heads don't button up the back.
