'Jobs for the Boys' Row
I read the following ' Jobs for the boys' article in The Scotsman newspaper - the other day.
What the piece doesn't refer to is that Tom McCabe was the leader of South Lanarkshire Council back in 1999 - the same year that he was elected to the Scottish Parliament.
1999 was also the year in which South Lanarkshire Council made key decisions about how to progress the 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement locally - though it took the council another five years to finally put these arrangements into place.
I first met Tom McCabe when we were both members of the Scottish TUC's Youth Committee - at the time I represented NUPE (now part of Unison) while Tom represented the AUEW, if I remember correctly, the engineers' union - which is now part of Unite, of course.
So it seems that Tom has landed a new job in Glasgow - which doesn't surprise me in the least.
What I do find interesting though is that Glasgow seems relaxed about releasing or confirming the details of what some of its employees get paid - whereas South Lanarkshire treats this kind of information as a closely guarded secret.
‘Jobs for the boys’ row after Labour stalwart Tom McCabe gets £50,000 job
By Scott MacNab
A former Labour government minister is at the centre of a cronyism row after landing a lucrative policy role with Glasgow City Council.
Opposition parties have complained to the Labour-run council’s legal officials after Tom McCabe, a finance minister in the last Labour/Liberal Democrat administration at Holyrood, landed a role as a policy manager with a salary of almost £50,000.
Council leaders insist he was appointed after an open and transparent process and there was no input from any Labour councillors.
Mr McCabe lost his Holyrood seat in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse last year when the SNP swept to its landslide election victory.
But he played a key role in Labour’s successful local election campaign in Glasgow earlier this year, which saw the party return to power, despite years of internal turmoil.
The opposition SNP group on the council have condemned the appointment in the authority’s land and services department and have asked the council’s chief solicitor if there is any way to challenge it.
Graeme Hendry, leader of the Glasgow SNP Group, said: “Glasgow Labour’s murky history is clearly not in the past after appointing a failed Labour politician to a post that is supposed to be politically neutral.
“Not only is he a former Labour minister, he also ran the council campaign in Glasgow and has aligned himself to ensure he gets a top spot.
“Earning a reported salary of just under £50,000 a year is yet another slap in the face to the people of Glasgow. The list of incompetence and jobs for the boys goes on. I’ve raised my concerns with the chief solicitor at the council.
“This post is supposed to be non-political – what assurances can he make to the people of Glasgow that he will not be putting his allegiances to Labour first?”
