Snakes and Ladders

North Lanarkshire Council has responded to my recent Freedom of Information (FoI) request by providing the following details on the hourly rates of traditional male council jobs.

Now these jobs were all in receipt of 'bonuses' worth up to 60% of basic pay, but these extra payments were never extended to women's jobs despite the Council's obligations under equality legislation and the requirements of the 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement.

In addition, the declared pay scale of these jobs may not reflect accurately what the men were actually paid compared to the women because 'pay protection' may have resulted in the men being paid above the official pay scale.

Another practice which is gradually coming to light is that the male jobs all seem to have been assimilated at the top of the pay scale while the women's jobs went to the bottom of the scale. 

In a bizarre version of snakes and ladders, but one in which only the women's jobs landing on the pay equivalent of a snake.

What's amazing is that before the Council's introduced a new Job Evaluation Scheme (JES) in 2006 a Home Support Worker was on a higher old grade (Manual Worker Grade 5) than all of the male jobs on the list. 

I wonder what odds you would get on that?

Job Title	Minimum Hourly Rate	Maximum Hourly Rate
Road Sweeper Grade - NLC02	£6.8341	£8.3967
Refuse Collector Grade - NLC03	£7.2923	£9.1269
Gardener 1 Grade - NLC04	£8.6093	£9.7269
Gardener 2 Grade – NLC04	£8.6093	£9.7269
Gardener 3 Grade – NLC05	£8.9637	£10.2330
Refuse Driver/Gravedigger/ Gardener 4/Driver 2 Grade – NLC06	£9.5440	£11.0769
Driver 1 Grade – NLC04	£8.6093	£9.7269
Labourer/Store man Grade – NLC 02	£6.8341	£8.3967