Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

Here is the original case which I put to the Scottish Information Commissioner - regarding Freedom of Information and Equal Pay in South Lanarkshire. To my mind the council is now trying to delay the inevitable - while continuing to defend the indefensible. And in  my view this is a shocking way for a Labour council - yes a Labour council, as Neil Kinnock once observed - to behave. Dear Scottish Information Commissioner South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) – FOISA request I enclose an exchange of correspondence with South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) regarding a FOISA enquiry which I initiated on 17 February 2011. I asked South Lanarkshire Council to review its initial decision, but I am dissatisfied with their response in relation to Document 1 – a written report to a meeting of the Council’s Corporate Management Team – which the Council has redacted to avoid public scrutiny. As a result, I would like to register the following appeal with the Scottish Information...

The Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) has been in touch to say that SIC is preparing to fight the FOI appeal - which South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) is now taking to the UK Supreme Court. A ridiculous state of affairs - in my opinion -  which is being pursued at huge public expense since SIC and SLC are both funded by the taxpayer, of course.  I predict that SLC will lose its appeal - just as it lost the argument with the independent Scottish Information Commissioner - and three senior Scottish judges at the Court of Session. But you do have to ask yourself - 'If the council has nothing to hide, why doesn't it just publish the information and be damned?'   Is it because this will let the cat out of the bag? I suspect so - and isn't it interesting that the trade unions have so little to say on the matter - yet they claim to be great supporters of Freedom of Information. Openness and Transparency (28 Marc...

In an effort to brighten up Edinburgh Airport, airport bosses put Pablo Picasso's painting - Nude Woman in a Red Armchair - on display. But then promptly withdrew the painting in a panic response following complaints from a number of passengers - whose identities remain a mystery. Now I can take or leave some of Picasso's paintings - he can't do faces as Tony Hancock once famously said. Scotland and Edinburgh were about to become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world - at this craven example of censorship. Only to be rescued by a welcome change of heart by airport management - who have now put the painting back on display. Talk about the Scottish 'cringe'.

A regular reader from South Lanarkshire has been touch - to say that she attended a local Unison meeting on equal pay during the week - but was 'disgusted' at the union's attitude. Apparently, the meeting was a waste of time with only a handful of people present - and their questions were simply batted back and/or blamed on South Lanarkshire Council. Now the council is ultimately responsible for the pay arrangements within the workforce - but the fact of the matter is that these pay arrangements have not been secretly imposed on the trade unions. Instead they have been negotiated and agreed over a period of years - so the unions do know 'where the bodies are buried', so to speak - and cannot simply wash their hands of the whole affair. Here are some questions that the trade unions can and should answer - because a positive response can only benefit the interests of ordinary union members.   Questi...

I enjoyed an article in the latest edition of Private Eye - which poked fun at the shameless behaviour of Westminster MPS on the Home Affairs Select Committee. Now I'm all in favour of giving the great and good a hard time - where appropriate - because people in the public eye should be held to account for their actions. But the sight of MPs trying to speak from the moral high ground is enough to make you laugh out loud - especially where people like Keith Vaz are concerned.   So here's what the Eye had to say. Han-z-z-zard Select Committee for Media, Publicity and Self-Promotion Keith Vaz (Hinduja West, Lab)  We have the huge pleasure today of welcoming to our committee Mr Nick Buckles, the chief executive of G4S, so that we can demonstrate just how clever we are and, incidentally, guarantee extensive coverage of ourselves on tinight's TV news. All: Hear, hear. Enter bespectacled man in suit with silly haircut, looking rathe...

Pin Money (2 July 2012) The trade unions are getting themselves into to terrible fankle over equal pay in South Lanarkshire - if my mail box is anything to go by. Apparently lots of members are up in arms about the comments of the one union branch secretary - Stephen Smellie - which I reported on the blog site yesterday (via the Hamilton Advertiser). See post dated 1 July 2012 - 'Foot And Mouth'. One angry union member dropped me a note to say: "I have never contacted you before but I was appalled at the comments from Stephen Smellie. I cannot believe his negative comments regarding the female workforce. It is like something from the dark ages. Does he not have a mother, wife or daughter? To think that this fight is all to do with a new three piece suite shows us what he thinks of women." I was rather taken aback at the comments as well I have to admit - in fact it reminded me the old phrase 'pin money'. Which was a term used in the 1960s by peo...

South Lanarkshire (26 June 2012) Lots of readers have been in touch to ask about the Employment Tribunal's decision in respect of South Lanarkshire Council (SLC). The key point to note is that South Lanarkshire Council's job evaluation scheme (JES) has been declared 'unfit for purpose' – because it does not satisfy the most basic requirements of the UK's equal pay legislation including the 1970 Equal Pay Act. The Glasgow Employment Tribunal - in a quite devastating judgement – determined that the in-house SLC job evaluation scheme ‘is not to be relied upon’ as far as equal pay is concerned. So where does that leave South Lanarkshire Council? In a dirty great hole and one entirely of its own making - I would say - though many of the senior people responsible for this mess have now left South Lanarkshire Council - some with big fat pensions, of course. The council put all its eggs in one basket - it relied upon its 'in-house' job evaluation scheme...

Famous Last Words (24 June 2012) I am currently trawling through the blog site archive searching for interesting articles about the equal pay debacle in South Lanarkshire Council - here's one I came across from 27 August 2011. I have highlighted a couple of comments from the council leader - Eddie McAvoy - who, in my considered opinion, is understating the problems facing the council by a very long way. Because South Lanarkshire is now in a much deeper hole - than its neighbour in North Lanarkshire. So the real question for South Lanarkshire is: 'When will the council finally stop digging and making its equal pay problems even worse?' "Bitter Equal Pay Battle" Here's a good article on the ongoing fight for equal pay in South Lanarkshire - which appears in this week's edition of the Hamilton Advertiser. The piece might well be published in other local papers - which are part of the same newspaper group. Readers will note that the Hamiton Ad...

When I read the piece in the Daily Record about South Lanarkshire Council's amazing  generosity with public funds - I just knew I had said something about this on the blog site before. See post dated 6 August 2012 - 'Mired in Scandal'. So having done a quick search through the blog site archive - I discovered the following post from October 2010 which - spookily enough - predicts the very outcome and cavalier use of public money reported by the Daily Record. Which has now been criticised of course by the nation's public spending watchdog - Audit Scotland. Council Wars (22 October 2010) The Herald reports today on the first casualty of the 'civil war' between senior councillors and senior officials - in South Lanarkshire Council. See previous posts dated 08 and 18 October 2010. So, South Lanarkshire's Executive Director of Finance and IT has decided to quit - it seems - in the wake of a series of scandals which involved: 1 claims of widesprea...

I think the problem with the Russian President - Vladimir Putin - might be that he has no sense of humour, no sense of the ridiculous - and that he takes himself far too seriously. Virgil Tracey For example here's a picture of Virgil Tracy - another all action figure (daring Pilot of Thunderbird 2 of course) and star of the hit TV show and movie - Thunderbirds. Vladimir Putin Now to my mind there's an uncanny resemblance between Virgil and Vladimir - they're both square-jawed, all-action figures - their names both begin with V - and they both like pointy hats and silly uniforms. So why not lighten up a bit Vlad - laugh at yourself a little bit - the world (including Russia) would be a much better place.  

A number of readers from Edinburgh have been in touch - mystified by a recent communication from their trade union. Apparently the message is that trade union claimants in Edinburgh - in the former APT&C  category - are not to be made settlement offers by Edinburgh City Council. Despite the fact that the same category of Action 4 Equality Scotland clients - were made settlement offers months ago. 'Can I shed any light on the situation?', people want to know - but unfortunately I can't as I'm not exactly privy to what the City Council is telling the trade unions - or vice versa. What does suprise me though is why no explanation is provided by the trade unions - surely they must know what the issue or problem is - so why don't they just share this information with their members in Edinburgh? It's all a bit strange - a bit of a mystery - if you ask me. So if anyone has their ear to the ground, drop me a note - in complete confidence of course - at:...

Here are some more kind words from a regular reader from Edinburgh - as ever, glad to have been of service.   Hi Mark, Edinburgh and Equal Pay I am writing to let you know that I have just received my settlement from The City of Edinburgh Council -  words cannot express how grateful I am to all staff involved in all the work that has made this possible. It has been a long time since I first registered with Action 4 Equality Scotland in September 2005. I hope that sometime soon the councils in other area will realise that this is not going to disappear and that in the not too distant future everyone will get the monies that they so rightly deserve. Once again my very, very sincere thanks. Regards, A