Grubby Little Deal

A reader from North Lanarkshire - a Classroom Assistant - sent me an e-mail the other day in which she asked about this grubby little deal between the unions and the council - to settle only some of the outstanding tribunal claims.

Here's my reply.

But the fact of the matter is that while the male workers involved are being sold short - a much greater number of people doing former APT&C jobs - who are mainly women - are being left out altogether.

Dear A

North Lanarkshire and Equal Pay

A tribunal hearing was due to be held on 12 March - but was cancelled apparently because of 'secret' discussions which were held between the trade unions and North Lanarkshire Council - during which the unions offered to settle on terms that were much worse than claims settled previously.

Why the trade unions would do this I don't know - because it involves selling their own members short and doing a secret 'under the counter' deal with North Lanarkshire Council.

I suspect the unions will now have problems selling this deal because I have alerted people to what's going on via the Action 4 Equality Scotland blog site - but the key thing from your point of view is that Classroom Assistants and other former APT&C jobs have been deliberately excluded from this 'deal'.

Even though North Lanarkshire Council has already set aside sufficient funds to settle the outstanding claims from people in former APT&C jobs which are known as Equal Value (EV) claims.

To my mind the behaviour of North Lanarskhire Council is completely deplorable - and the trade unions are just as bad.

Kind regards



Mark