North Lanarkshire Caves In
Good news for clients in North Lanarkshire – the council has caved in and abandoned the appeal hearing scheduled for 4 September 2009.
The council’s decision clears the way for a GMF or ‘defence’ hearing - where North Lanarkshire has to try to explain and justify - the big differences between male and female jobs.
The appeal hearing affected all the Home Carers – with the council arguing that they had been reorganised and re-graded several years ago.
So, the council argued that the carers should not be treated in the same way as other ‘former manual workers’ - for equal pay purposes.
But the council finally faced up to the inevitable - that it would lose this argument at the forthcoming appeal hearing – and has walked away from its own case at the eleventh hour.
The frustrating thing in all of this is that the council has been wasting time and public money with these deliberate stalling and time wasting tactics.
It’s a public disgrace that so many council employees have been messed about in this way – serious questions should be asked of senior managers and politicians.
Because the people at the top have allowed this pantomime to develop – then run and run for months - with local council tax payers picking up the bill.
A Freedom of Information request about North Lanarkshire Council’s external legal costs – sounds like a very good idea at this point in time.
Local voters and council tax payers should know what is being done in their name.
Meanwhile Action 4 Equality Scotland and Stefan Cross will be pushing for a full GMF hearing as soon as possible.
The council may decide to walk away from that date with destiny as well – but if they do, they will have to settle all the outstanding claims – including those of the Home Carers.
Needless to say – the unions have not performed well during this debacle – they were compromised by their involvement in the original reorganisation of the Home Care service – so they've really just sat on the sidelines.
All the hard work and heavy lifting – as usual - has been done by Action 4 Equality Scotland and Stefan Cross.
The council’s decision clears the way for a GMF or ‘defence’ hearing - where North Lanarkshire has to try to explain and justify - the big differences between male and female jobs.
The appeal hearing affected all the Home Carers – with the council arguing that they had been reorganised and re-graded several years ago.
So, the council argued that the carers should not be treated in the same way as other ‘former manual workers’ - for equal pay purposes.
But the council finally faced up to the inevitable - that it would lose this argument at the forthcoming appeal hearing – and has walked away from its own case at the eleventh hour.
The frustrating thing in all of this is that the council has been wasting time and public money with these deliberate stalling and time wasting tactics.
It’s a public disgrace that so many council employees have been messed about in this way – serious questions should be asked of senior managers and politicians.
Because the people at the top have allowed this pantomime to develop – then run and run for months - with local council tax payers picking up the bill.
A Freedom of Information request about North Lanarkshire Council’s external legal costs – sounds like a very good idea at this point in time.
Local voters and council tax payers should know what is being done in their name.
Meanwhile Action 4 Equality Scotland and Stefan Cross will be pushing for a full GMF hearing as soon as possible.
The council may decide to walk away from that date with destiny as well – but if they do, they will have to settle all the outstanding claims – including those of the Home Carers.
Needless to say – the unions have not performed well during this debacle – they were compromised by their involvement in the original reorganisation of the Home Care service – so they've really just sat on the sidelines.
All the hard work and heavy lifting – as usual - has been done by Action 4 Equality Scotland and Stefan Cross.
