Edinburgh - Male Claimants
A regular reader from Edinburgh has been in touch - a male claimant, a school janitor - who wants to know why it's taking so long to settle his outstanding equal pay claim.
Well the truth is that Edinburgh City Council is the problem - it's been dragging its feet and refusing to settle these claims for years - on behalf of male workers - non-bonus earning workers such as school janitors and social work drivers.
Apparently the city council has been far too busy digging up Edinburgh's streets and wasting hundreds of millions of pounds - on its ridiculous trams project.
Meanwhile these male claimants - and other groups of former APT&C workers - have still to get their equal pay claims settled.
A big test case was heard earlier this year at the Court of Session on behalf of the former APT&C claimants - but the written decision has yet to be released.
So sit tight and fingers crossed.
Efforts have been redoubled to knock some sense into the council - over the male claimants and as soon as there are any developments - I will let people know.
Meantime here's a previous post about Stirling - which settled its janitors' claims earlier this year - we will get there in the end.
Can I Have My Money Back? (March 2011)
I know this sounds like the title for a Gerry Rafferty song.
But this post is my small tribute to a group of male janitors from Stirling - who pursued an equal pay claim with Action 4 Equality Scotland - in the teeth of opposition from their trade unions.
In 2006 - if I remember correctly - I went to visit this group who were all very interested in equal pay - and the work of Action 4 Equality Scotland.
Problem was - they were all warned off by their unions - who said they had no chance of a successful claim - because equal pay was only for women.
But janitors didn't receive bonus payments - unlike other lower graded male jobs such as refuse workers and gardeners.
"So, why don't we have a claim?", the Stirling janitors wanted to know - not unreasonably.
Well the answer - of course - is that they did.
The only difference was that the women workers had first to win their own claims - which opened the door to what was called a contingent claim by the male janitors.
And the rest is history - but now all the janitors want to know if they can get their union contributions back.
For all those wasted years in which the unions did nothing about equal pay - for the janitors individually or as a group.
I think the answer to that is probably not - and the cost of pursuing a refund would outweigh the likely benefit in any event.
So as one of the janitors said to me - the best response to the unions is that 'we were proved right in the end and that's all that counts - along with the cheque that's now in the bank'
A case of he who laughs last - laughs longest.
Well the truth is that Edinburgh City Council is the problem - it's been dragging its feet and refusing to settle these claims for years - on behalf of male workers - non-bonus earning workers such as school janitors and social work drivers.
Apparently the city council has been far too busy digging up Edinburgh's streets and wasting hundreds of millions of pounds - on its ridiculous trams project.
Meanwhile these male claimants - and other groups of former APT&C workers - have still to get their equal pay claims settled.
A big test case was heard earlier this year at the Court of Session on behalf of the former APT&C claimants - but the written decision has yet to be released.
So sit tight and fingers crossed.
Efforts have been redoubled to knock some sense into the council - over the male claimants and as soon as there are any developments - I will let people know.
Meantime here's a previous post about Stirling - which settled its janitors' claims earlier this year - we will get there in the end.
Can I Have My Money Back? (March 2011)
I know this sounds like the title for a Gerry Rafferty song.
But this post is my small tribute to a group of male janitors from Stirling - who pursued an equal pay claim with Action 4 Equality Scotland - in the teeth of opposition from their trade unions.
In 2006 - if I remember correctly - I went to visit this group who were all very interested in equal pay - and the work of Action 4 Equality Scotland.
Problem was - they were all warned off by their unions - who said they had no chance of a successful claim - because equal pay was only for women.
But janitors didn't receive bonus payments - unlike other lower graded male jobs such as refuse workers and gardeners.
"So, why don't we have a claim?", the Stirling janitors wanted to know - not unreasonably.
Well the answer - of course - is that they did.
The only difference was that the women workers had first to win their own claims - which opened the door to what was called a contingent claim by the male janitors.
And the rest is history - but now all the janitors want to know if they can get their union contributions back.
For all those wasted years in which the unions did nothing about equal pay - for the janitors individually or as a group.
I think the answer to that is probably not - and the cost of pursuing a refund would outweigh the likely benefit in any event.
So as one of the janitors said to me - the best response to the unions is that 'we were proved right in the end and that's all that counts - along with the cheque that's now in the bank'
A case of he who laughs last - laughs longest.
