South Lanarkshire

Action 4 Equality Scotland held a successful series of meetings in South Lanarkshire earlier this year – several hundred people came along – some for the first time, others to hear about how their equal pay claims were progressing.

The current position is that we are seeking dates for a Pre-Hearing Review (PHR) which will challenge the council’s pay and grading structure and, effectively, the way South Lanarkshire has implemented the 1999 Single Status Agreement, particularly its ‘in-house’ job evaluation (JE) scheme.

So, we are planning to repeat the series of meetings we held in January – but this time we’re going to invite local politicians to come along and hear first-hand what council employees have to say.

Why? Because many local politicians were not around when the 1999 Single Status Agreement was introduced and few have a detailed knowledge of what has been going on in South Lanarkshire over recent years.

South Lanarkshire is unique amongst Scottish councils. We believe there are serious flaws in the council’s job evaluation scheme which can be summarised as follows:

1. The pay and grading process is not open and transparent
2. Council employees cannot discover how their own jobs are valued
3. Council employees cannot discover how other council jobs have been valued
4. The Council claims but can’t substantiate trade union support for the JE scheme
5. Most female dominated council jobs remain stuck at the bottom of the pay ladder
6. Single Status in South Lanarkshire has reinforced pay discrimination against female jobs
7. The Council has introduced widespread personal pay preservation for traditional male jobs
8. The Council’s preservation scheme is a clear breach the 1999 Single Status Agreement
9. Many women workers in South Lanarkshire Council are treated less favourably than men

So we want to open up a dialogue with local MSPs. We want council employees in South Lanarkshire to contact their MSPs – and ask for their help in getting some straight answers to straight questions about equal pay and Single Status.

Because no other council in Scotland is behaving the way South Lanarkshire is behaving - and we want to mobilise the many employees who are have been badly let down by Single Status.

Why will the politicians listen? Because local voters count – local voters will decide the outcome of the next Scottish Parliament, Westminster and local council elections.

And we want the politicians to realise that the issue of equal pay won’t go away until there’s a fair settlement of people’s claims.

We plan to publish names and contact e-mail addresses for local MSPs – over the next week or so. All the background information you need is on the blog site – and the more people that get involved the better.

If you need any additional help, drop Mark Irvine a note at: markirvine@compuserve.com