South Lanarkshire
Here's an previous post from the blog site - the trade unions are now panicking about advice they've given to members in South Lanarkshire Council - not to pursue equal pay claims.
Because the unions gave the very same advice to many of their non-bonus earning male members (janitors, drivers and so forth) in other councils - and that advice has now blown up in their faces - like an exploding cigar.
So, ordinary members have lost out financially, big time - and many of them are thinking about how to hold their trade unions to account - for giving them such poor and costly advice.
The same scenario could be replayed in South Lanarkshire - which is the only council in the whole of Scotland - where the trade unions are still actively dissuading members from protecting their own interests - by taking up an equal pay claim.
Maybe union members in South Lanarkshire ought to be asking just what this advice is based upon - is it firm legal advice and if so, why not share the details with ordinary members who stand to lose out of it's wrong - then at least everybody would know where they stand.
February 2008
South Lanarkshire - Union Doublespeak
A curious feature of the equal pay cases in South Lanarkshire Council - is that the trade unions are not involved in a single claim to the Employment Tribunals.
Nowhere else in Scotland is this true - in other areas the trade unions tend to have far fewer claims than those brought by Action 4 Equality and Stefan Cross - but at least they're at the races.
In South Lanarkshire all is sweetness and light seemingly - or at least it used to be - until we began to ask the trade unions whether they are in fact fully signed up to the council's local Single Status Agreement and Job Evaluation Scheme which were introduced in 2004.
All of a sudden the unions are singing a different tune - perhaps because they too could be in the frame (along with the council) for agreeing to a something that turns out to be a real 'pig in a poke'.
South Lanarkshire Council says their scheme has trade union support - but intriguingly the unions themselves are now not so sure. The local Unison branch has issued a letter to members that says very specifically: "..., there is no separate Single Status Agreement which was signed in South Lanarkshire".
And this deliberate choice of words from Unison is no coincidence - because it allows a certain amount of wriggle room. When the shit hits the fan the unions will simply say, in time honoured fashion, that the council is to blame (otherwise known as: 'a big boy did it and ran away!).
So, is the worm now beginning to turn - are the unions now distancing themselves from the council - as the equal pay chickens come home to roost?
Quite possibly - because at a recent South Lanarkshire CMD hearing in Glasgow who turned up? Not just one, but two senior Unison officials - who wanted to sit in and listen to the proceedings.
Action for Equality Scotland and Stefan Cross certainly had no objections, but incredibly South Lanarkshire did - and so the union colleagues were forced to leave.
But the fact they were there at all speaks volumes - as does the fact they were asked to leave by their erstwhile friends - on the employer's side.
Because the unions gave the very same advice to many of their non-bonus earning male members (janitors, drivers and so forth) in other councils - and that advice has now blown up in their faces - like an exploding cigar.
So, ordinary members have lost out financially, big time - and many of them are thinking about how to hold their trade unions to account - for giving them such poor and costly advice.
The same scenario could be replayed in South Lanarkshire - which is the only council in the whole of Scotland - where the trade unions are still actively dissuading members from protecting their own interests - by taking up an equal pay claim.
Maybe union members in South Lanarkshire ought to be asking just what this advice is based upon - is it firm legal advice and if so, why not share the details with ordinary members who stand to lose out of it's wrong - then at least everybody would know where they stand.
February 2008
South Lanarkshire - Union Doublespeak
A curious feature of the equal pay cases in South Lanarkshire Council - is that the trade unions are not involved in a single claim to the Employment Tribunals.
Nowhere else in Scotland is this true - in other areas the trade unions tend to have far fewer claims than those brought by Action 4 Equality and Stefan Cross - but at least they're at the races.
In South Lanarkshire all is sweetness and light seemingly - or at least it used to be - until we began to ask the trade unions whether they are in fact fully signed up to the council's local Single Status Agreement and Job Evaluation Scheme which were introduced in 2004.
All of a sudden the unions are singing a different tune - perhaps because they too could be in the frame (along with the council) for agreeing to a something that turns out to be a real 'pig in a poke'.
South Lanarkshire Council says their scheme has trade union support - but intriguingly the unions themselves are now not so sure. The local Unison branch has issued a letter to members that says very specifically: "..., there is no separate Single Status Agreement which was signed in South Lanarkshire".
And this deliberate choice of words from Unison is no coincidence - because it allows a certain amount of wriggle room. When the shit hits the fan the unions will simply say, in time honoured fashion, that the council is to blame (otherwise known as: 'a big boy did it and ran away!).
So, is the worm now beginning to turn - are the unions now distancing themselves from the council - as the equal pay chickens come home to roost?
Quite possibly - because at a recent South Lanarkshire CMD hearing in Glasgow who turned up? Not just one, but two senior Unison officials - who wanted to sit in and listen to the proceedings.
Action for Equality Scotland and Stefan Cross certainly had no objections, but incredibly South Lanarkshire did - and so the union colleagues were forced to leave.
But the fact they were there at all speaks volumes - as does the fact they were asked to leave by their erstwhile friends - on the employer's side.
