Serial Losers
As regular readers know, South Lanarkshire is one of my least favourite councils - one of the worst offenders in Scotland over equal pay - in my humble opinion anyway.
So I am pleased to share the news that South Lanarkshire has just lost another big equal pay battle - in the Glasgow employment tribunal.
Earlier this year the council's 'in-house' job evaluation scheme was heavily criticised by the employment tribunal - which decided unanimously that it was not 'fit to be relied upon' in terms of the Equal Pay Act.
A shocker of a result it has to be said - for a council which had been developing this 'in-house' job evaluation scheme for years - in collaboration with the trade unions, so it claimed.
Unhappy with this decision, South Lanarkshire asked for a review of certain aspects of the original decision - another time-wasting and delaying tactic, if you ask me - never mind another appalling waste of public money.
And what do you know?
South Lanarkshire lost (again) and their request for an appeal has been thrown out - with the tribunal deciding unanimously (again):
"The unanimous Judgment of the Employment Trbunal is that the interests of justice do not require a review of the Judgment dated 18 June 2012 and that accordingly the respondent's application for a review should be refused."
Now I'm not sure if South Lanarkshire Council would recognise the interests of justice - if it suddenly jumped up and bit them on the arse, but as this is the season of goodwill, let's put that point aside - for the moment at least.
In the New year South Lanarkshire is heading to the UK Supreme Court to challenge (yet again) my FOI request for pay information about traditional male jobs - and to pursue an appeal against the Employment Tribunal's original findings over its 'in-house' job evaluation scheme.
I think that South Lanarkshire may be developing a reverse 'Midas touch' - in terms of equal pay anyway - because everything the council touches seems to turn to dust rather than gold.
I certainly hope that recent eevtns are a good omen for what's likely to follow in various courts and tribunals - in 2013.
