Backslappers United

Readers in South Lanarkshire tell me that the council and the trade unions are patting each other on the back again - over a 4p rise for the lowest paid council staff.

Apparently, South Lanarkshire Council's lowest lowest rate of pay - the so-called 'living wage' - will rise from £7.16 and hour to £7.20 an hour.

But the jobs in question - predominantly female jobs of course - are the ones that should have benefited from the Scotland Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement - which was brought in way back in 1999.

And if that had happened - in the way originally intended - then the jobs in question would have been earning £9 or even £10 an hour - many years ago.

Just as their male colleagues have been doing all this time.

Because as everyone knows traditional male jobs in South Lanarkshire Council - such as refuse workers and gardeners - are paid much more handsomely than jobs done mainly by women - for example carers and classroom assistants.

Which means that the 'living wage' in South Lanarkshire is really just an insult to the lowest paid council staff - who not only deserve a much higher rate of pay - but to be compensated for what they've lost all these years - compared to their male colleagues.

Here's something I wrote about the 'living wage' - just last month.

A Living Fig Leaf (10 January 2012)

One of the big 'themes' to emerge out of today's big Labour re-launch - is Ed Miliband's new found support for what is referred to as the 'living wage'.

Now the living wage is a bit like the minimum wage - except a little bit more at around £7.13p an hour - the last time I looked.

And the argument is that employers - especially those in the public sector - should introduce a new minimum living wage of £7.13p an hour - because Labour is determined to help out the people at the bottom of the pay ladder.

Now I have to say that this is all just so much baloney.

More like a handy fig leaf to cover up Labour's well-deserved embarrassment - at letting down low-paid workers all these years.

Because in 1997 the UK Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement was introduced to tackle exactly this problem - 15 years ago.

In Scotland a more comprehensive Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement was signed in 1999 - to end the historical pay discrimination against so many low paid - and largely female dominated jobs.

At that time many male dominated, often unskilled jobs which carried little responsibility - were earning £9 or £10 an hour - yet much more demanding jobs done mainly by women were earning the equivalent of only £6 an hour.

So a refuse worker, street sweeper or gardener - were earning £3 or sometimes £4 an hour more than - a home carer, catering worker or a classroom assistant.

In other words many male jobs were earning thousands of pounds a year more than their women colleagues - something that could not be justified under equal pay legislation.

Just like the 'Made in Dagenham' film - based on events from 1968.

So in 1997 and 1999 the employers agreed with the trade unions - to sweep away these old, discredited pay arrangements.

The plan was to replace them with modern pay schemes - based an objective job evaluation - which would ensure that people were paid fairly in future - according to the actual skills and responsibilities of their jobs.

The expectation of everyone involved - both the employers and unions - was that this would bring about a significant rise in the pay of many female dominated jobs - which everyone agreed were badly undervalued and underpaid at that point.

So what happened?

Precisely nothing - because having introduced this major new agreement - hailed as historic and groundbreaking at the time - the big Labour councils and the Labour supporting unions had other priorities in mind.

The truth is that if the employers and trade unions had done what they said they would do back in 1997 and 1999 - all of these low paid, female dominated jobs would have been earning £9 and £10 an hour years ago.

At a time when council budgets were doubling in size - as they did in Scotland between 1997 and 2007.

So pardon me if I say that this notion of a living wage - £7.13 an hour or whatever it is - is a miserable fig leaf - designed solely to hide people's embarrassment.

Because when it comes to equal pay - the Labour party has behaved very badly - while the Labour supporting unions just looked the other way.

The people who lost out were low paid council workers - yet now we're being asked to believe that Ed Miliband's Labour party has suddenly woken up and that - under new leadership - Labour is back on their side again in 2012.

Which is of course a barmy - and wholly unbelievable proposition.