North Lanarkshire Update
I've had lots of enquiries about Equal Value (EV) claims in North Lanarkshire recently so I thought I'd say something more detailed on the blog site.
EV claims are in a separate category all of their own. These cases only relate to the period 2000 to 2006. Most relate to former APT&C staff who did not receive a compensation payment from North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) for that period. We call these First Wave claims. Most manual workers have already had their First Wave payment.
The recent settlement announcement with NLC deals with the period from January 2007 to March 2015. We call these Second Wave Claims. Because no one has yet had a Second Wave payment this Offer will cover everyone i.e. both former Manual Workers and former APT&C.
Rather surprisingly because of NLC’s continual delaying of the First Wave Remedies hearings (we’ve now already had 3 Hearings and several more case management discussions in the last year alone, with a 4th Hearing listed for May) the Second Wave offers will be going out to people before the First Wave Orders from the tribunal.
We have to get a tribunal Order for the remaining First Wave claimants because the council refused to put forward offers we believed were reasonable.
In addition a very large number of our EV claimants are entitled to substantially enhanced pension benefits which only a tribunal award can safely protect. We will provide more detail on this once we have the tribunal Orders.
In the meantime the Second Wave settlement will be applied to both groups and will receive their offers soon.
On top of the Second Wave offer, if you are still working of the council there is the possibility of a third payment. Depending on what happens once the Council properly re-evaluates various jobs there could be a further payment due for the period April 2015 going forward.(but we will not know about this before the end of 2015 and not everyone will be entitled to this further payment)
The bottom line is that the EV claimants will have to wait slightly longer for their First Wave Entitlement but we believe this will be worth the wait in the end.
Terms explained - here's a quick guide to some of the equal pay jargon that causes some people confusion.
EV claims are in a separate category all of their own. These cases only relate to the period 2000 to 2006. Most relate to former APT&C staff who did not receive a compensation payment from North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) for that period. We call these First Wave claims. Most manual workers have already had their First Wave payment.
The recent settlement announcement with NLC deals with the period from January 2007 to March 2015. We call these Second Wave Claims. Because no one has yet had a Second Wave payment this Offer will cover everyone i.e. both former Manual Workers and former APT&C.
Rather surprisingly because of NLC’s continual delaying of the First Wave Remedies hearings (we’ve now already had 3 Hearings and several more case management discussions in the last year alone, with a 4th Hearing listed for May) the Second Wave offers will be going out to people before the First Wave Orders from the tribunal.
We have to get a tribunal Order for the remaining First Wave claimants because the council refused to put forward offers we believed were reasonable.
In addition a very large number of our EV claimants are entitled to substantially enhanced pension benefits which only a tribunal award can safely protect. We will provide more detail on this once we have the tribunal Orders.
In the meantime the Second Wave settlement will be applied to both groups and will receive their offers soon.
On top of the Second Wave offer, if you are still working of the council there is the possibility of a third payment. Depending on what happens once the Council properly re-evaluates various jobs there could be a further payment due for the period April 2015 going forward.(but we will not know about this before the end of 2015 and not everyone will be entitled to this further payment)
The bottom line is that the EV claimants will have to wait slightly longer for their First Wave Entitlement but we believe this will be worth the wait in the end.
Terms explained - here's a quick guide to some of the equal pay jargon that causes some people confusion.
Equal Pay - is a generic term covering all equal pay cases
Equal Value (EV) - is short for 'Equal Pay For Work of Equal Value' and this covers two different jobs which have not been assessed under a common job evaluation scheme. In the case of former APT&C staff this was true pre-2007 and involves a comparison between, for example, a council refuse worker and a school clerical worker or classroom assistant.
RAE stands for Rated as Equivalent and refers to the former Manual Worker claims pre-2007 because jobs like School Cleaner of a Home Carer had been rated under an earlier and common Manual Worker job evaluation scheme, but the women were denied the big bonuses paid to the male jobs.
