Councils - strapped for cash?
Councils are always trying to pretend that they are strapped for cash - which is the excuse they normally use when trying to wriggle out of their obligations on equal pay. Yet, for the second year running, Glasgow City Council has announced a ZERO increase in council tax. In other words, Glasgow has plenty of money and its council tax won't increase by a single penny in 2007/08.
Glasgow did the same thing just over a year ago. In the run up to Xmas 2005, the council (aided and abetted by the unions) tried to 'buy out' people's equal pay claims on the cheap - by offering one-off cash payments instead of the back pay employees were really entitled to receive.
The council said it had no money, every last penny was being put to good use - they said, the cupboard was bare when it came to equal pay. But a few weeks later - surprise, surprise - the council was so well off that it could afford to announce that Glasgow's council tax would not have to increase at all in 2006/07.
Every other council in Scotland increased the council tax last year - Edinburgh had the smallest real terms increase of all the remaining councils at 2.14%. The truth is that Glasgow could have raised millions to help pay for equal pay had it introduced a similar modest rise in the council tax - which all the other councils managed without causing public disorder and riots in the streets.
The truth is that politicians can find the money to suit their own priorities - a big pay increase for teachers or for elected councillors can be justified - but when it comes to equal pay for the lowest paid workers - the councils' say they can't afford it or there will have to be redundancies and/or cuts in services.
Last year, in 2006, councils were roundly criticised in the Scottish Parliament for hoarding £1.4 billion in council reserves - more than enough to meet their equal pay obligations several times over!
So, the moral of the story is - don't be taken in by these crocodile tears and fairy tales about being strapped for cash. They are, quite simply, untrue.
Glasgow did the same thing just over a year ago. In the run up to Xmas 2005, the council (aided and abetted by the unions) tried to 'buy out' people's equal pay claims on the cheap - by offering one-off cash payments instead of the back pay employees were really entitled to receive.
The council said it had no money, every last penny was being put to good use - they said, the cupboard was bare when it came to equal pay. But a few weeks later - surprise, surprise - the council was so well off that it could afford to announce that Glasgow's council tax would not have to increase at all in 2006/07.
Every other council in Scotland increased the council tax last year - Edinburgh had the smallest real terms increase of all the remaining councils at 2.14%. The truth is that Glasgow could have raised millions to help pay for equal pay had it introduced a similar modest rise in the council tax - which all the other councils managed without causing public disorder and riots in the streets.
The truth is that politicians can find the money to suit their own priorities - a big pay increase for teachers or for elected councillors can be justified - but when it comes to equal pay for the lowest paid workers - the councils' say they can't afford it or there will have to be redundancies and/or cuts in services.
Last year, in 2006, councils were roundly criticised in the Scottish Parliament for hoarding £1.4 billion in council reserves - more than enough to meet their equal pay obligations several times over!
So, the moral of the story is - don't be taken in by these crocodile tears and fairy tales about being strapped for cash. They are, quite simply, untrue.
