North Lanarkshire Council

While Labour politicians like Ed Miliband bang on about tackling inequality here's the reality on the ground - a Labour council in North Lanarkshire withholding information about the way in which male and female jobs were treated, by senior managers, back in 2005.   

Now I've been around long enough to remember the 1985 Labour Party conference when Neil Kinnock denounced Liverpool City Council - a Labour council - 'hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers'. 

And it seems to me that North Lanarkshire Council is involved in behaviour which is just as bad and impossible to justify, only the issue at stake here is openness and transparency in relation to equal pay and the Council's job evaluation scheme.   

So I have registered the following appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) which I intend to share with councillors in North Lanarkshire as well Derek Mackay, Minister for Local Government and Planning in the Scottish Government.

If you ask me, Labour controlled North Lanarkshire Council should be ashamed of itself. 

  September 2014

Rosemary Agnew

Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

Fife

KY16 9DS

Dear Ms Agnew

North Lanarkshire Council (SLC) – FOISA request

I enclose an exchange of correspondence with North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) regarding a FOISA enquiry, which I initiated with the council on 20 June 2014. 

I asked for a review of the council’s initial decision on 29 July 2014 having had no response to my initial FOI request and the council finally responded (late) to my Review Request on 28 August 2014 with what amounts to, in my opinion, a completely ridiculous argument that “disclosure would prejudice substantially or be likely to prejudice substantially, the effective conduct of public affairs,….”. 

I am, therefore, dissatisfied with the council’s response and I would like to  register an appeal with the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) for the following reasons. 

1. The information I requested relates to North Lanarkshire’s Corporate Management Team (CMT) and a specific meeting held on 11 August 2005. The CMT was the body within the council which had ultimate control over the implementation of the council’s Job Evaluation Scheme (JES) and the subsequent pay arrangements that flowed from the JES.
2. A fundamental requirement of any job evaluation process is that the  scoring and grading jobs should be conducted in an open and transparent manner. Not only because of the large sums of public money involved, but also to ensure that employees (individually or in groups) can readily tell that they are being treated fairly and consistently; that pay discrimination is not at work either directly or indirectly.
3. North Lanarkshire Council is currently defending over 3,000 equal pay claims from clients of Action 4 Equality Scotland. But the council has been forced to concede in the Glasgow Employment Tribunal (a public hearing) that it has graded thousands of jobs wrongly by allocating these jobs (Home Carers, School Crossing Patrollers and Playground Supervisors) incorrect scores which, in turn, affects their grading and pay.
4. The council claims that these incorrect scores were caused by ‘errors’ and ‘mistakes’ although the council has been unable to explain how and when these ‘errors’ and ‘mistakes’ occurred and who within the council is responsible, presumably a highly paid senior official because a junior person would not have that leave of control over the JES process.
5. In addition, the council claims that supporting documentation regarding the application of the JES (scores and grades) has mysteriously gone missing and that there is no back up data or ‘audit trail’ to explain what exactly happened and who was involved in this enormously damaging admission that thousands of jobs have been incorrectly scored. North Lanarkshire is Scotland’s fourth largest council, by the way.
6. I should also point out that for years the council flatly denied anything was amiss with the scoring and grading of these jobs, and that the job groups in question all had their internal appeals rejected. So the Employment Tribunal has set the cat amongst the pigeons and these revelations, in my view, effectively challenge the council’s conduct of public affairs.
7. The significance of the CMT meeting held on 11 August 2005 is that the minute may show evidence of the council interfering with the JES process by trying to manipulate results and outcomes - but after the event. If so, this  would amount to ‘tampering’ with the JES which is a serious matter on a number of levels including: the good governance of the council, the interests of individuals and groups of employees, the use of public money and the wider interest of taxpayers regarding the conduct of public affairs.
8. So in my view the council is now trying to conceal evidence of wrongdoing or inappropriate behaviour within the council of ‘tampering’ with the JES. In the circumstances, I believe there is an overwhelming public interest in publishing the minute and enclosures of the CMT dated 11 August 2005. Ironically and contrary to the council’s defence, I believe that publication would actually help to ensure the effective conduct of public affairs by holding senior officials to account for their actions over nine years ago.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course and if you require any further details or clarification at this stage, please contact me on 07947 795222 or by e-mail at markirvine@compuserve.com

Kind regards

Mark Irvine 

List of enclosures x 4

1. Original FOISA request to NLC dated 20 June 2014
2. Acknowledgement from NLC chief executive dated 23 June 2014
3. Further review letter to NLC dated 29 July 2014
4. Final response letter from NLC dated 27 August 2014