South Lanarkshire Update
South Lanarkshire’s equal pay claims face a major 10 day hearing early in the New Year – from 12 to 23 January 2009.
Clients are very welcome to attend the hearing, but in reality few people, if any, will be able to give up that much of their own free time.
So, we’re planning to use this opportunity to prepare for the hearing and report back to clients over the next couple of months.
South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) continues to refuse to explain how its job evaluation (JE) scheme works – there is an ongoing battle to gain even basic information about scores and grades – details that other councils in Scotland have made freely available.
South Lanarkshire claimed previously that its JE scheme “has been externally verified” - but this claim turns out to be completely untrue.
Because the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) never gave its approval to the South Lanarkshire scheme (as claimed by the council at the time) and - according to the council now - discussions with the EOC barely got off the ground.
The council’s failure to gain EOC approval was discovered only recently following a Freedom of Information request.
So, the upshot is that South Lanarkshire employees were misled at a crucial time – via a staff newsletter - which made false claims about the SLC job evaluation scheme: the foundation stone of the council’s pay and grading structure.
.
If you want to organise a meeting in your own local area – all you need to do is identify:
• a possible date or dates
• a good time of day
• a suitable local venue
Lots of similar meetings have been held in South Lanarkshire in the past – in a wide variety of different venues - our experience is that local people know best in terms of where and when to meet.
So, if you want to join in then contact Mark Irvine at: markrivine@compuserve.com
Clients are very welcome to attend the hearing, but in reality few people, if any, will be able to give up that much of their own free time.
So, we’re planning to use this opportunity to prepare for the hearing and report back to clients over the next couple of months.
South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) continues to refuse to explain how its job evaluation (JE) scheme works – there is an ongoing battle to gain even basic information about scores and grades – details that other councils in Scotland have made freely available.
South Lanarkshire claimed previously that its JE scheme “has been externally verified” - but this claim turns out to be completely untrue.
Because the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) never gave its approval to the South Lanarkshire scheme (as claimed by the council at the time) and - according to the council now - discussions with the EOC barely got off the ground.
The council’s failure to gain EOC approval was discovered only recently following a Freedom of Information request.
So, the upshot is that South Lanarkshire employees were misled at a crucial time – via a staff newsletter - which made false claims about the SLC job evaluation scheme: the foundation stone of the council’s pay and grading structure.
.
If you want to organise a meeting in your own local area – all you need to do is identify:
• a possible date or dates
• a good time of day
• a suitable local venue
Lots of similar meetings have been held in South Lanarkshire in the past – in a wide variety of different venues - our experience is that local people know best in terms of where and when to meet.
So, if you want to join in then contact Mark Irvine at: markrivine@compuserve.com
