North Lanarkshire News
I've just sent off another FoI appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) because North Lanarkshire Council is refusing to release more details of an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out back in 2006.
Now the EIA was conducted independently and the terms of reference were discussed with Unison apparently, but for some reason North Lanarkshire Council is reluctant to disclose any more information about the assessment which is very odd, if you ask me.
But then a lot of things within North Lanarkshire Council are very strange including the fact that senior officials get paid big performance bonuses while the rest of the workforce face a policy of pay restraint.
So let's see what the Scottish Information Commissioner has to say because I don't buy for a minute the Council's argument that releasing this information would be 'prejudicial to the good conduct of public affairs' - I think it's all about trying to save senior officials from potential embarrassment.
By the way isn't in interesting that as soon as I asked an FoI question about North Lanarkshire's performance pay figures for 2013/14 - that the figures for the current year were suddenly published on the Council's web site.
Performance Pay (9 September 2014)
Performance Pay (9 September 2014)
Regular readers will be aware that I have submitted an FoI Review Request to North Lanarkshire Council because of the Council's refusal to release information regarding an Equality Impact Assessment carried out over 8 years ago, back in 2006.
Now I find this quite staggering, I have to say, and I've got a lot of experience in dealing with FoI requests having fought and defeated South Lanarkshire Council all the way up to the UK Supreme Court.
Because the Equality Impact Assessment was about ensuring that the Council's new pay arrangements in North Lanarkshire (in 2006) were fair and non-discriminatory, so why is the Council reluctant for people to know what went on at the time?
We shall see, but my view is that North Lanarkshire is a terribly dysfunctional council these days because I've had to register a separate FoI appeal to SIC (the Scottish Information Commissioner) over the Council' refusal to release the minute of a Corporate Management Team meeting dating back to August 2005.
But when the Council's chief executive (Gavin Whitefield) acknowledged my original FoI request he said this had been passed on to the Executive Director of Corporate Services (June Murray) who failed to answer my FoI request, which meant I had to register a further FoI Review request.
And the same June Murray is now responsible for dealing with my latest FoI Review request about the council's Equality Impact Assessment.
Here's a little 'pen portrait' of June Murray taken from North Lanarkshire's web site - unlike all the other council chief officials June's entry doesn't have a figure for performance pay although that's maybe because the latest amounts refer to 2012/13 and June only joined the council in June 2013.
But does that mean that the chief executive and all his senior colleagues keep their performance pay from 2012/13 - no matter how well or poorly they have performed since?
I think we should be told.
June Murray, Executive Director, Corporate Services
Corporate Services is the title of a group of mainly support and professional services for the council, which has the ambition of delivering high quality and cost effective support for the council, its elected councillors and the services the council provides.
While some important direct services to the public are part of the service grouping - such as licensing and the registration service - for the most part, Corporate Services provide a major range of support services without which the council could not operate effectively.
These range from committee and decision making arrangements to property maintenance, from health and safety to architectural services, from legal advice to staff recruitment, from employee development to property management, from support to elected councillors to quantity surveying.
Salary 2012/13: n/a (Appointed June, 2013)
June Murray, Executive Director, Corporate Services
Performance Pay (5 September 2014)
Gavin Whitefield CBE, Chief Executive
The Chief Executive within North Lanarkshire is the council's chief policy advisor. He is the main link between council officials and elected members. He is responsible for corporate governance and seeks to ensure the co-ordination of the organisation and all its functions. Of primary concern to the Chief Executive is the overall direction and performance of the council.
Salary 2012/13: £136,473 (plus performance-related pay of £11,039.20)
In its recent FoI response to me North Lanarkshire Council had the cheek to ask that I send any future requests to a particular email mail address as follows: committeea@northlan.gov.uk
As if this explained or justified in some way the Council's screwing things up and failing to respond to my original FoI request which was dated 20 June 2014.
Now, as North Lanarkshire says a person is entitled to send an FoI request to anyone within the Council and I have always sent my requests direct to the chief executive, both in North Lanarkshire and elsewhere.
And anyway to make matters worse my emailed FoI request to North Lanarkshire's highest paid official was acknowledged by the man himself, Gavin Whitefield, or at least someone in the CEO's office acting on his behalf - on 23 June 2014.
-----Original Message-----
From: Whitefield Gavin <WhitefieldG@northlan.gcsx.gov.uk>
Sent: Mon, Jun 23, 2014 10:47 am
Subject: RE: FoI Request
Mr Irvine
I acknowledge receipt of your email regarding the above and would advise that I have forwarded it to the Executive Director of Corporate Services to process as a Freedom of Information enquiry.
Gavin Whitefield
Chief Executive
Tel: 01698 302452
So what in the world is the Council complaining about?
I wonder if this incident will have an adverse effect on the chief executive's annual performance bonus which was worth £11,039.02 in 2012/13 - according to the Council's web site.
Gavin Whitefield CBE, Chief Executive
The Chief Executive within North Lanarkshire is the council's chief policy advisor. He is the main link between council officials and elected members. He is responsible for corporate governance and seeks to ensure the co-ordination of the organisation and all its functions. Of primary concern to the Chief Executive is the overall direction and performance of the council.
Salary 2012/13: £136,473 (plus performance-related pay of £11,039.20)
In its recent FoI response to me North Lanarkshire Council had the cheek to ask that I send any future requests to a particular email mail address as follows: committeea@northlan.gov.uk
As if this explained or justified in some way the Council's screwing things up and failing to respond to my original FoI request which was dated 20 June 2014.
Now, as North Lanarkshire says a person is entitled to send an FoI request to anyone within the Council and I have always sent my requests direct to the chief executive, both in North Lanarkshire and elsewhere.
And anyway to make matters worse my emailed FoI request to North Lanarkshire's highest paid official was acknowledged by the man himself, Gavin Whitefield, or at least someone in the CEO's office acting on his behalf - on 23 June 2014.
-----Original Message-----
From: Whitefield Gavin <WhitefieldG@northlan.gcsx.gov.uk>
Sent: Mon, Jun 23, 2014 10:47 am
Subject: RE: FoI Request
Mr Irvine
I acknowledge receipt of your email regarding the above and would advise that I have forwarded it to the Executive Director of Corporate Services to process as a Freedom of Information enquiry.
Gavin Whitefield
Chief Executive
Tel: 01698 302452
I wonder if this incident will have an adverse effect on the chief executive's annual performance bonus which was worth £11,039.02 in 2012/13 - according to the Council's web site.
Council Bigwigs (14 March 2014)
Here's another post from the blog site archive about North Lanarkshire Council which speaks for itself if you ask me - the only thing I would add is that given recent events in the Employment Tribunal, the officials involved should now be asked to hand these ridiculous bonuses back.
Because their performance has been shoddy, to say the least, in terms of looking after the interests of the workforce, so given what we know now how can the Council's senior managers defend these bonus payments?
The whole sorry business is enough to make a banker blush.
Here's another post from the blog site archive about North Lanarkshire Council which speaks for itself if you ask me - the only thing I would add is that given recent events in the Employment Tribunal, the officials involved should now be asked to hand these ridiculous bonuses back.
Because their performance has been shoddy, to say the least, in terms of looking after the interests of the workforce, so given what we know now how can the Council's senior managers defend these bonus payments?
The whole sorry business is enough to make a banker blush.
Pay Freeze Hypocrites ( 26 March 2012)
North Lanarkshire Council should hang its head in shame.
The Sunday Herald has exposed a secret pay deal involving big bonus payments to some of the council's most senior officials - which must have been approved by the Labour Group that runs North Lanarkshire Council (NLC).
The truth has been dragged out of North Lanarkshire Council - and shows that 29 senior staff scooped approximately £184,000 in extra payments - chief executive Gavin Whitefield being the biggest winner with an extra £12,050 on top of his £136,848 salary.
Which must make other council workers hopping mad - because at a time when their pay is being frozen - the chief executive is awarded an 9% pay increase.
How's that for hypocrisy and double standards?
The Sunday Herald goes on to point out that five executive directors - who earn salaries of £113,250 a year - all received more than £9000 - as did the assistant chief executive John Ellerby.
And more than 20 heads of service - on salaries between £77,166 and £85,761 - each took home bonus payments of approximately £4000 to £6000.
Now the council calls these extra payments performance related pay - but they are really just bonuses by another name.
Apparently only a select group of people can access such payments - and I imagine the scheme works in only one direction in the sense that a senior official's core salary is guaranteed - so the chief executive can never earn less than £136,848 a year.
In which case how can it be a genuine performance based scheme - if people's pay can only go up but never down?
The salaries of all council chief executives is determined by collective bargaining - in a similar way to other groups of council employees - via a Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee (SJNC).
On the SJNC for chief executives and chief officials - where COSLA represents the employers' interests and Unison is the main trade union - salaries for chief executives are set as part of a Scotland-wide agreement - and the pay of Glasgow's chief executive always comes out on top.
Because Glasgow is by far the largest council - and by and large that is what any sensible person would expect.
But there is no provision in the Scotland-wide salary agreement - for locally determined performance pay - since that would be against the spirit of national bargaining and would be potentially discriminatory as well - especially if such payments are only available to elite groups of senior staff.
So the whole thing's a disgrace if you ask me.
In many ways it reminds me of the secret 'top-up' payments made by Glasgow City Council - to councillors who acted as Chairs of its arm's length external organisations (such as Cordia) - or ALEOs as they became known.
Regular readers will remember that these payments were stopped by the Scottish Government - but only after an independent enquiry criticised Glasgow's top-up payments - as unjustified, unnecessary and a complete waste of taxpayers' money.
So I would be interested to hear how a Labour-run council can justify this kind of behaviour.
Especially at a time when thousands of people in North Lanarkshire Council are still fighting for equal pay.
How can the senior Labour councillors who signed off on this deal - look a low paid worker in the eye without feeling a huge sense of embarrassment and shame?
And have you noticed how the tame Labour unions have nothing to say - just as they did over equal pay the unions seem to have lost their voices.
Roll on the local council elections on 3rd May, I say - there is a day of reckoning coming and the sooner it comes the better.
If I had a vote in North Lanarkshire in May - I'd vote for a party which promised to end the scandal of Labour's secret bonus payments - to the council's most senior and well paid staff.
North Lanarkshire Council should hang its head in shame.
The Sunday Herald has exposed a secret pay deal involving big bonus payments to some of the council's most senior officials - which must have been approved by the Labour Group that runs North Lanarkshire Council (NLC).
The truth has been dragged out of North Lanarkshire Council - and shows that 29 senior staff scooped approximately £184,000 in extra payments - chief executive Gavin Whitefield being the biggest winner with an extra £12,050 on top of his £136,848 salary.
Which must make other council workers hopping mad - because at a time when their pay is being frozen - the chief executive is awarded an 9% pay increase.
How's that for hypocrisy and double standards?
The Sunday Herald goes on to point out that five executive directors - who earn salaries of £113,250 a year - all received more than £9000 - as did the assistant chief executive John Ellerby.
And more than 20 heads of service - on salaries between £77,166 and £85,761 - each took home bonus payments of approximately £4000 to £6000.
Now the council calls these extra payments performance related pay - but they are really just bonuses by another name.
Apparently only a select group of people can access such payments - and I imagine the scheme works in only one direction in the sense that a senior official's core salary is guaranteed - so the chief executive can never earn less than £136,848 a year.
In which case how can it be a genuine performance based scheme - if people's pay can only go up but never down?
The salaries of all council chief executives is determined by collective bargaining - in a similar way to other groups of council employees - via a Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee (SJNC).
On the SJNC for chief executives and chief officials - where COSLA represents the employers' interests and Unison is the main trade union - salaries for chief executives are set as part of a Scotland-wide agreement - and the pay of Glasgow's chief executive always comes out on top.
Because Glasgow is by far the largest council - and by and large that is what any sensible person would expect.
But there is no provision in the Scotland-wide salary agreement - for locally determined performance pay - since that would be against the spirit of national bargaining and would be potentially discriminatory as well - especially if such payments are only available to elite groups of senior staff.
So the whole thing's a disgrace if you ask me.
In many ways it reminds me of the secret 'top-up' payments made by Glasgow City Council - to councillors who acted as Chairs of its arm's length external organisations (such as Cordia) - or ALEOs as they became known.
Regular readers will remember that these payments were stopped by the Scottish Government - but only after an independent enquiry criticised Glasgow's top-up payments - as unjustified, unnecessary and a complete waste of taxpayers' money.
So I would be interested to hear how a Labour-run council can justify this kind of behaviour.
Especially at a time when thousands of people in North Lanarkshire Council are still fighting for equal pay.
How can the senior Labour councillors who signed off on this deal - look a low paid worker in the eye without feeling a huge sense of embarrassment and shame?
And have you noticed how the tame Labour unions have nothing to say - just as they did over equal pay the unions seem to have lost their voices.
Roll on the local council elections on 3rd May, I say - there is a day of reckoning coming and the sooner it comes the better.
If I had a vote in North Lanarkshire in May - I'd vote for a party which promised to end the scandal of Labour's secret bonus payments - to the council's most senior and well paid staff.
In many ways it reminds me of the secret 'top-up' payments made by Glasgow City Council - to councillors who acted as Chairs of its arm's length external organisations (such as Cordia) - or ALEOs as they became known.
Regular readers will remember that these payments were stopped by the Scottish Government - but only after an independent enquiry criticised Glasgow's top-up payments - as unjustified, unnecessary and a complete waste of taxpayers' money.
So I would be interested to hear how a Labour-run council can justify this kind of behaviour.
Especially at a time when thousands of people in North Lanarkshire Council are still fighting for equal pay.
How can the senior Labour councillors who signed off on this deal - look a low paid worker in the eye without feeling a huge sense of embarrassment and shame?
And have you noticed how the tame Labour unions have nothing to say - just as they did over equal pay the unions seem to have lost their voices.
Roll on the local council elections on 3rd May, I say - there is a day of reckoning coming and the sooner it comes the better.
If I had a vote in North Lanarkshire in May - I'd vote for a party which promised to end the scandal of Labour's secret bonus payments - to the council's most senior and well paid staff.
Curiouser and Curiouser (5 September 2014)
Here's my FoI Review Request to North Lanarkshire Council regarding its refusal to release details of an Equality Impact Assessment (EIS) carried out back in 2006.
Now I don't know what the Council has to hide, but if you ask me the Council does not have a valid reason to withhold this information and, as such, is in danger of turning itself into a laughing stock.
Maybe someone from within the Council will leak this information because other people must know what went on, for example Unison must know who was involved on their side and the extent of the consultation with the trade unions.
September 2014
June Murray
Executive Director of Corporate Services
North Lanarkshire Council
By email
Dear June
FoI Review Request
I refer to the attached letter from North Lanarkshire Council's Freedom of Information Coordinator, Angelene Kirkpatrick, and would like to register the following Review Request in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
- First of all, I have to say that it is completely absurd for the Council to suggest that the release of information regarding an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out in 2006 is in any way prejudicial to the effective conduct of public affairs in 2014.
- In my view the exact opposite is true and the release of this information would allow people (including the council workforce) to see for themselves how the terms of reference of the EIA were drafted and the extent of the consultation that allegedly took place with Unison.
- North Lanarkshire Council has not offered any evidence to demonstrate how the release of this information would impact adversely on the ongoing Employment Tribunal or any settlement discussions taking place outside of the Employment Tribunal, but as far as I am concerned the two things are entirely unconnected.
- Furthermore, I would say that instead of acting in an open and transparent manner the Council is in danger of being seen to be trying to shield senior officials from proper scrutiny, on a matter which affects large numbers of staff and involves the use of significant amounts of public money.
- So taking all the issues into account I hope you will reverse the decision to reject my initial FoI request because the Council is bound to lose this argument, in my view, if I have to appeal this matter to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by email at: markirvine@compuserve.com
Kind regards
Mark Irvine
Curiouser and Curiouser 2 (18 August 2014)
I wrote recently about the Equality Impact Assessment Impact (EIA) carried out by North Lanarkshire back in 2006, the purpose of which must have been to ensure that the Council's job evaluation scheme (JES) was operating in a non-discriminatory way.
I've had a response to my FoI request to North Lanarkshire Council regarding the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out by the Council back in 2006 which makes for very interesting reading, I have to say.
Now all the names of people have been removed from the published document, for reasons that make little sense to me, but as I know who all the key players are already this doesn't present any problems.
Here is what the first two paragraphs say:
Introduction
In my role as independent consultant to the COSLA Job Evaluation Consortium and the Scottish Joint Council for Local Government Services I have been asked to undertake an equality impact assessment of the grading and pay structure that North Lanarkshire Council has developed in order to implement the 'single status' agreement with effect from 1 April 2006.
Terms of Reference
With the assistance of the North Lanarkshire Council Job Evaluation Project Team I have undertaken a limited statistical analysis of the outcomes of the job evaluation exercise in accordance with the terms reference set out by the Head of Personnel in her e-mail to (NAME DELETED) of Unison dated 7th March 2006.
Now I will have more to say about the substance of the report in due course because I find its comments about the Council's Implementation Strategy really quite shocking, but first of all I think I'm correct in saying that the person who set the EIA's Terms of Reference back in 2006 (as Head of Personnel) is still in that position all these years later in 2014, albeit the post now has the title of Head of Human Resources.
Which means it must be none other than my old acquaintance, Iris Wylie, who is the former partner of Unison's regional secretary in Scotland, Mike Kirby.
But what exactly were these Terms of Reference and who is the mysterious Unison person whose name has been deleted by the Council in answering my FoI request?
I think we should be told - so watch this space for further news.
Curiouser and Curiouser (3)
I don't know who is calling the shots over at North Lanarkshire Council 's Freedom of Information (FoI) operation these days, but if you ask me whoever is in charge has taken leave of their senses.
Because the Council has just refused my FoI request asking for details of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) which the Council carried out back in 2006 on the ridiculous grounds that disclosing this information would "prejudice substantially the effective conduct of public affairs".
Because the Council has just refused my FoI request asking for details of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) which the Council carried out back in 2006 on the ridiculous grounds that disclosing this information would "prejudice substantially the effective conduct of public affairs".
But I have to ask myself in all seriousness - 'How can it possibly prejudice anything in 2014 to be told who Iris Wylie was talking to in Unison back in 2006 and how can people knowing more about the EIA terms of reference possibly do the Council any harm?"
Unless the Council has something to hide of course which is why I'll be submitting a Review Request pretty damn quick - so watch this space.
Gavin Whitefield
Chief Executive
North Lanarkshire Council
BY E-MAIL TO: whitefieldg@northlan.gov.uk
Dear Mr Whitefield
FOISA Request
I would like to make the following request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002.
1 Please provide me with a copy of the e-mail from the Council's Head of Personnel to Unison dated 7 March 2006 which sets out detailed terms of reference for the Equality Impact Assessment conducted by the Council over its plans to implement the 'single status' agreement with effect from 1 April 2006.
I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail to: markirvine@compuserve.com
Kind regards
Mark Irvine
Dear Mr Whitefield
FOISA Request
Curiouser and Curiouser 2 (18 August 2014)
In other words not treating male jobs more favourably than their women colleagues.
Yet that is exactly what appears to have happened in North Lanarkshire, if recent developments at the Employment Tribunal are anything to go by because the Council has been forced to concede that many jobs have been wrongly graded and that the bonus payments of male workers were into account when these jobs were moved over on to new pay structures.
So I was amazed I have to say at the following comments from the EIA report which is marked "Private and Confidential" and is dated 14 March 2006"
"Implementation Strategy"
"While I have not been asked to review the entire implementation proposal I understand that pay equality in the new pay and grading structure is underpinned in the proposed NLC arrangements for:
- assimilation to the new structure
- incremental progression
- improved detriment protection beyond the provisions of the SJC 'single status' agreement
- addressing pay inequality arising from bonus payments to male manual workers"
Now I'm almost lost for words at complacency involved because what was the point in asking someone independent of the Council to review the impact of the JES and the pay arrangements that flowed from the JES, if that person did not actually complete the job?
If you ask me that is and was a completely crazy state of affairs which is why I've submitted a further FoI request about the EIA's terms of reference which appear to have been set by Iris Wylie, the Council's head of human resources.
Curiouser and Curiouser (4 August 2014)
I've had a response to my FoI request to North Lanarkshire Council regarding the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out by the Council back in 2006 which makes for very interesting reading, I have to say.
Now all the names of people have been removed from the published document, for reasons that make little sense to me, but as I know who all the key players are already this doesn't present any problems.
Here is what the first two paragraphs say:
Introduction
In my role as independent consultant to the COSLA Job Evaluation Consortium and the Scottish Joint Council for Local Government Services I have been asked to undertake an equality impact assessment of the grading and pay structure that North Lanarkshire Council has developed in order to implement the 'single status' agreement with effect from 1 April 2006.
Terms of Reference
With the assistance of the North Lanarkshire Council Job Evaluation Project Team I have undertaken a limited statistical analysis of the outcomes of the job evaluation exercise in accordance with the terms reference set out by the Head of Personnel in her e-mail to (NAME DELETED) of Unison dated 7th March 2006.
Now I will have more to say about the substance of the report in due course because I find its comments about the Council's Implementation Strategy really quite shocking, but first of all I think I'm correct in saying that the person who set the EIA's Terms of Reference back in 2006 (as Head of Personnel) is still in that position all these years later in 2014, albeit the post now has the title of Head of Human Resources.
Which means it must be none other than my old acquaintance, Iris Wylie, who is the former partner of Unison's regional secretary in Scotland, Mike Kirby.
But what exactly were these Terms of Reference and who is the mysterious Unison person whose name has been deleted by the Council in answering my FoI request?
I think we should be told - so watch this space for further news.
