Knowledge is Power

In recent months South Lanarkshire Council has been scrambling to make changes to the way some of its employees are paid - I wrote about this new development way back in September in the wake of the landmark UK Supreme Court hearing - which South Lanarkshire lost, big time, of course.

Ever since I've received a steady flow of information from Council workers employed in these jobs - because they understand that Equal Pay was never about these male council workers  being paid too much - since the 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement in Scotland was always about the women's jobs being paid too little.

In recent weeks I've had people contact me to tell me that: 

1 A particular job which was put on a grade of AP4 in 1998 and then later placed on SCP 44 - had its annual salary reduced from £25,995 to £21,600 or a cut of more than £2.00 an hour.

2 The local trade unions (GMB, Unison and Unite) sold these previous 'all inclusive' salary packages to the workforce - every bit as much as much as the Council managers.

3 Yet now the same workers are being bullied into accepting new and lower salaries - which they, understandably, believe to be grossly unfair.

4 Not surprisingly, many people are now extremely angry at their treatment - or as one union steward put it they are 'completely disenchanted at the way the council and the unions in SLC operate'.     

5 'You really couldn't make it up' - as another told me in a recent email.

All I would say is keep the information coming because it's extremely useful to know what the Council is up to - in fact I'm meeting someone next week who has agreed to pass on certain letters and documents - which I'm sure I'll find very interesting.

But the more the merrier, as they say - because knowledge is power at the end of the day - and if you have any information to pass on, drop me an email (in complete confidence of course) to: markirvine@compuserve.com
  

South Lanarkshire (24 September 2013)

I've been contacted by a number of male workers from South Lanarkshire Council in the past week - people doing the kind of traditional jobs which have been at the heart of all the equal pay controversy in recent years.

Apparently, the pay and pay arrangements for these workers has changed in recent days - with people's pay slips suddenly showing new and different salary levels from those which have been in place, undisturbed, for years.

I'm told that these pay slips suddenly show a significant reduction in the official or basic salary for these jobs - of around 15% - although the difference is made up via a contingency or compensatory, so that 'take home' pay remains the same - but only for a temporary period.  

Now I suspect this is all to do with the recent UK Supreme court hearing and the fact that the Council's pay arrangements are slowly but surely being dragged out into the open - where they belong, of course - so that everyone can understand what different council jobs get paid.  

But if I were in one of these traditional male jobs, I'd be concerned that such changes are being introduced without proper consultation - and a written explanation of how what the changes mean for the future.

So there are a number of important points to make:    

1 Any change in an employee's terms and conditions of employment should be set out in a full explanatory letter - it is against the law and is unacceptable just to amend a pay slip

2 A new and lower official salary will impact on an employee's pension and retirement benefits - especially if 'take home' pay is only guaranteed for a fixed period.

3 A new and lower official salary will have an impact on anyone seeking a mortgage or some other kind of loan - since a lender will only be interested in the official or lower rate.   

So I'm thinking of organising a meeting for council workers who find themselves in this position -  and if you'd be interested in coming along, then drop me an email to markirvine@compuserve.com

If other readers have information to pass on, the details might well help the wider equal pay campaign and will be treated in complete confidence - of course.