FOI Request

Here's my latest FOI request to South Lanarkshire Council which will be of special interests to Council employees like Nursery Nurses - who are paid higher up the pay scale than many other women workers because of the skills, responsibilities and qualifications required of their jobs.

But that doesn't mean to say that Nursery Nurses don't have perfectly valid equal pay claims - because there are other traditional male jobs within South Lanarkshire Council - Craftworker jobs - which appear to be getting paid much more than their women colleagues.

Now a typical Craftworker - for example a Council Painter - does a responsible job which obviously requires a degree of skill and training, but I would be take some persuading that a Council Painter carries more responsibility or requires more qualifications than a Nursery Nurse.

The declared rate for the Craftworker job is Spinal Column Point (SCP) 27 to SCP 42 - or £9.04 an hour to £11.29 an hour.

But as we know - thanks to the UK Supreme Court - South Lanarkshire Council has been paying certain traditional male jobs much more than their declared or official rates of pay.

Which is why I have asked how far up the pay ladder the Craftworker jobs go - and I have asked the Council to confirm how many are paid between SCP 43 to SCP 75 - or £11.49 and hour to £18.48 an hour.   

Funny how South Lanarkshire Council - and the trade unions for that matter - don't like this kind of information being made easily and freely available to a largely female Council workforce.   

28 August 2013

Lyndsay Freeland

Chief Executive

South Lanarkshire Council

BY E-MAIL

Dear Mr Freeland

FOISA Request

I refer to the decision 056/2011 of the UK Supreme Court and would like to make the following request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002.

1 Please provide me with the total number of BSO 2 (Craftworker) posts employed by South Lanarkshire Council as at 1 April 2013

2 Please provide me with the number of BSO 2 posts which were placed at the Spinal Column Points SCP 27 to SCP 42 – i.e. the officially declared pay band for these council jobs

3 Please provide me with the number of BSO 2 posts which were placed at each one of the thirty three Spinal Column Points between SCP 43 and SCP 75

As you know, when the UK Supreme Court finally got to hear South Lanarkshire’s FOI appeal the five judges gave short shrift to the Council’s arguments and decided, unanimously, that such information should be made available to the public, as did Court of Session in Scotland and the Scottish Information Commissioner, of course.

So I hope that South Lanarkshire Council might on this occasion answer by return as the information I am requesting must be ready to hand since the Council has already released similar data relating to other Council posts.

I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail to: markirvine@compuserve.com

Kind regards

Mark Irvine