South Lanarkshire

Hopping Mad? (24 August 2013)

I've had a flood of new enquiries from readers in South Lanarkshire asking if people can still register an equal pay claim with Action for Equality Scotland (A4ES) .  

The short answer is YES - of course you can and here's a previous post to the blog site that explains the background against the Employment Tribunal decision last year - which declared the Council's Job Evaluation Scheme as 'unfit for purpose'.

So, if you want to get things moving just drop me an email with your name, address and post code - and I'll arrange for the A4ES office to send out an information pack.

My email address is: markirvine@compuserve.com

The number of A4ES clients in South Lanarkshire Council has now risen to over 3,000 - I'm told.     

Hopping Mad? 

Here's an advert from Action 4 Equality Scotland which has been placed with local newspapers in the South Lanarkshire area - spread the word.

HOPPING MAD IN HAMILTON?

Several thousand workers have perfectly valid but, as yet, unregistered equal pay claims against South Lanarkshire Council (SLC).

For years SLC denied that equal pay was a problem, but a landmark judgement in the Glasgow Employment Tribunal in June 2012 decided otherwise.The Employment Tribunal ruled that SLC’s job evaluation scheme is effectively ‘unfit for purpose’ or ‘not to be relied upon’ in terms of the 1970 Equal Pay Act – which means the same is true of the council’s local pay structures.

Now this opens the door to many new claims by council workers who have been sitting on their hands perhaps waiting on the outcome of this long-running case. Because the council’s only defence to a valid equal pay claim is to have a sound and robust job evaluation scheme, but that defence has now effectively collapsed.

If you are an existing client of Action 4 Equality Scotland – which represents 2,400 South Lanarkshire workers - then you have no need to do anything. Just sit tight since your claim is well underway. But if you have not already registered a claim against SLC, you should consider doing so as soon as possible. You can do this by sending Action 4 Equality Scotland your name and full postal address:

by e-mail to: markirvine@compuserve.com

In the meantime don’t be taken in by the ridiculous propaganda of the trade unions.

For years the unions told council workers that they had no equal pay claims and they actively discouraged people from raising claims in South Lanarkshire. In effect the unions supported the council instead of standing up for their members.

The concerns that the trade unions are voicing now are crocodile tears because if they were serious about protecting their members’ interests they would have lodged protective equal pay claims years ago. The unions did this in other councils, up to a point, but neglected the interests of members in South Lanarkshire. So what they say now simply can’t be trusted.

If you were discouraged from pursuing an equal pay claim in the past, on the advice of your trade union, then a claim registered in 2012 will be worth less than claims lodged six years ago in 2006. This means that as well as having an equal pay claim against SLC, you could also have a complaint against your union.

SO DON’T DELAY – GET THINGS MOVING TODAY