Points Mean Prizes

Here's another post from the blog site archive - on the madness that goes under the name of the WPBR - which is shorthand for Glasgow City Council's 'Workforce Pay and Benefits Review'.

The essence of the scheme is that the 'rules' have been designed to favour traditional male jobs - which is why the WPBR is being challenged by Action 4 Equality Scotland.

You might ask - 'Why are the trade unions so quiet, why are all the Labour councillors so quiet and why are all the Labour MSPs so quiet - especially as they all claim to support equal pay and equal treatment under the law?

Well the answer to that is that I really don't know - apart from the fact that they're all joined at the hip, politically speaking - and are afraid of the potential 'domestic' fall-out if they stand up and speak a few home truths.

Whereas I say - 'Live up to your principles, have the courage of your convictions' - that is if you really have any. 

Because otherwise - sooner or later - people are going to find you out.    

Points Mean Prizes (9 February 2009)

The basic rule of Glasgow City Council’s job evaluation scheme (Workforce Pay and Benefits Review - WPBR) is that points mean prizes.

So, if you are a full-time worker – you get an extra 7 points and extra pay worth over £800 a year – just for being a full-time worker, not because of the skills and responsibilities of your job.

But if - and only if - you work full-time.

Now that sounds completely crazy, it has to be said.

Not to mention unlawful and discriminatory – since part-time workers are supposed to be treated equally and have the same basic employment rights as their full-time colleagues.

Why should someone (i.e. a woman) who works 30 or 25 hours a week be treated so very differently - from another person (i.e. a man) working 37 hours a week?

Could it be because the vast majority of part-time workers are women?

Because that’s certainly how it appears – that Glasgow City Council has introduced this bizarre practice simply to reduce the cost of the council’s pay bill.

But at the expense of women workers – the vast majority of whom work part-time, of course – and because of that they are being treated less favourably than the men.

What do the trade unions have to say about this?

What do Glasgow councillors – who claim the city council is an equal opportunities employer – have to say?

Their silence is deafening – and those that don’t stand up and speak out against what’s going on in Glasgow - should hang their heads in shame.