What The Papers Say
Here's what the East Kilbride News has too say about the FOI/Equal Pay debacle in South Lanarkshire Council.
In my view, Agnes Spence has the best comment of all - and I only hope that local politicians are listening to what she has to say.
South Lanarkshire Council loses pay scales challenge
The local authority has been embroiled in a long-running equal pay dispute which could ultimately cost the public purse up to £168,000.
The legal row is over claims the council awarded extra bonuses for male workers while women on the same pay grade received nothing.
South Lanarkshire Council rejected requests for the information from equal pay campaigner Mark Irvine in 2010. It then lost an appeal to the Court of Session when the Scottish Information Commissioner backed Mr Irvine’s case.
In a landmark ruling on Monday, five Supreme Court judges unanimously dismissed the council’s second appeal and ordered it to disclose its employee pay scales. The council was told it must also pay the legal costs incurred by the Commissioner.
The case could cost the taxpayer £168,000. A council spokeswoman said the council has spent £100,000 fighting the case.
The judgment is the first considered by the Supreme Court under Scotland’s freedom of information (FOI) law and brings this long-running FOI case to an end.
Retired home care worker Ann Spence (70), from Westwood, worked for the council for 28 years. She said: “I’m glad this mess has eventually been sorted out but the amount of public money this has cost is disgusting.”
Carol Fox, of lawyers Fox and Partners, who are representing the claimants, said the data was “vitally important”.
She said: “It lets us know exactly the number of men paid at these higher pay scales, and the distribution of highest paid men. It assists us in terms of the ongoing equal pay tribunal.
“I would strongly advise Mr McAvoy to look at the legal advice he has been getting, because it has not been successful to date and has been an utter waste of money.
“South Lanarkshire Council really need to rethink their strategy because they cannot win these cases.”
In May 2010, Mr Irvine made a number of requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 for information from South Lanarkshire Council.
He wanted to know how many of their employees in a particular post were placed at 10 particular points on the council’s pay scales.
His purpose was to find out whether the council’s pay gradings favoured work traditionally done by men.
Mr Irvine made it clear that he did not want to know the names of the staff concerned.
The council subsequently refused his requests on the grounds that to release such information would breach the Data Protection Act.
Mr Irvine then complained to the Scottish Information Commissioner who investigated and decided that the information should be disclosed.
In a written judgement, Lady Hale said that the court had unanimously dismissed the appeal.
It held that the Information Commissioner was entitled to reach his conclusion that disclosure of the information should be given by the council to Mr Irvine.
Mark Irvine called for the resignation of Council Leader Eddie McAvoy, saying: “After three long years justice and common sense have finally prevailed.
“The information I am seeking relates to the pay of traditional male council jobs which will expose whether male council workers have been more favourably treated in recent years than their women colleagues.
“South Lanarkshire originally dismissed my request as ‘vexatious’ – but now one of Scotland’s largest councils is left looking rather silly and, after this decision, with egg all over its face.
“The UK Supreme Court ruling comes on top of a previous judgement, also unanimous, from the Court of Session– Scotland’s highest civil court – and an earlier adjudication in my favour from the Scottish Information Commissioner.
“South Lanarkshire Council and its political leadership has lots of questions to answer over this debacle, and the terrible waste of public money involved. The wheels of justice turn very slowly at times, but today they finally caught up with South Lanarkshire Council, which should hang its head in shame.
“Eddie McAvoy, if he has any dignity, should resign as Leader of South Lanarkshire Council because he has presided over the mess the council has made of equal pay and is ultimately responsible for this terrible waste of public money.”
Welcoming the judgment, Scottish Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, said: “I am pleased that the ruling by the Supreme Court supports our own carefully considered conclusions on this case.
“Importantly the ruling also means that the requester can, at long last, receive the information to which he is entitled.”
South Lanarkshire Council Leader Eddie McAvoy said: “I am very disappointed at this outcome, and all the more so because we were told repeatedly by our legal advisers that our case was sound and that there were good grounds for the council’s arguments. Given the judges’ ruling, I have instructed officers to release this information as soon as is practical.”
