Scottish Parliament and equal pay
Charlie Gordon
Labour party candidate for the seat of Glasgow Cathcart
Former leader of Glasgow City Council - Scotland's largest council - and a member of the GMB union. The GMB ( along with other unions) has kept their members in the dark about their rights to equal pay for years - deliberately hiding the huge pay gap between male and female workers - rates of pay which the unions know about because they negotiated these rates with the employers.
Donald Anderson
Labour party candidate for the seat of Edinburgh South
Former leader of Edinburgh City Council - union membership or affiliation unknown. Donald has taken a keen interest the employment practices of other employers - for example, by castigating the Scottish Executive for moving civil service jobs away of Edinburgh - pity he didn't pay the same attention to his own backyard and equal pay.
Norman Murray
Labour party candidate for the seat of Edinburgh East and Musselburgh
Leader of East Lothian Council and former activist with the PCS union. Norman was the President of CoSLA during the crucial period between 1999 - 2001. As the umbrella body for the Scottish council employers, CoSLA had a duty to show leadership and whip individual councils into line - after they signed up to equal pay in 1999 - but as things turned out not even Norman's own council (East Lothian) honoured the agreement.
Christine May
Labour party candidate for the seat of Fife Central
Former leader of Fife Council and a member of the TGWU union. As one of Scotland's few women council leaders, arguably, Christine had a special responsibility to do the right thing on equal pay. Yet, Fife is just as bad as all the rest - and to make matters worse they are now trying to impose a new 'unequal' pay contract, despite the workforce voting this down in a secret ballot. The council is ignoring a democratic vote and the unions' (including the TGWU) are deliberately looking the other way.
At election time, all politicians across all parties will say that they support equal pay - no one would be daft enough to say anything else when they are desperately seeking your vote.
The more important question is what our putative MSPs think of the mess that both the employers and unions have made of things over the past 8 years - and what have they been doing during that time to stand up for the rights of low paid women workers?
Here are a few questions for candidates that will put them on the spot:
As a former council leader why did you not ensure full implementation of the equal pay (Single Status) agreement in 1999 ?
Do you agree that workers should not be pressurised and bullied into accepting partial compensation payments over equal pay?
Do you agree that the unions have deliberately kept their own members in the dark about the size of the pay gap between a care worker and a refuse worker, for example, or a trained nurse and an NHS tradesman?
Do you agree that the thousands of people who have retired since 1999 should be compensated in full for their losses?
What recent public statements have you made on equal pay and what stance would you take if elected as an MSP?
There are lots of other candidates standing for the Scottish Parliament who arguably merit a mention - all suggestions welcome - watch this space for further details!
