NLC Update (27/08/15)

GMB members in North Lanarkshire have organised another meeting to discuss their ongoing campaign for equal pay, but this time some senior officials of the union have agreed to attend which is a big step forward, if you ask me.   

The details of the meeting are as follows:

Date - Tuesday 1st September 2015

Time - 3.30pm to 5.00pm

Venue - Kirkshaws Social Club, Coatbridge, ML5 5DN

I've been invited along as well and if I can juggle commitments in my diary, I certainly hope to drop by next Tuesday afternoon.

NLC Update (26/08/15)

Well the GMB members meeting in North Lanarkshire yesterday was certainly a lively affair with well over 40 people turning up, at only a few days notice.

The discussion focused on three main areas:

• How did GMB members get into the mess they find themselves in today?
• What is the current position in relation to North Lanarkshire Council and the Employment Tribunals?
• What can members do if things drag on and the GMB fails to successfully amend their members claims, so that they can be settled on the same basis as the other claimants from Action 4 Equality Scotland, Fox and Partners Solicitors, Unison and Unite? 

In response to the invitation I issued on the blog site, two GMB representatives came along tot he Kirkshaws Social Club: Paul Grieve, a local union organiser and Douglas Japp, a solicitor with Digby Brown.

Paul had virtually nothing to say, of substance anyway, and although Douglas made a better fist of trying to answer people's questions and comments, it's still not clear why the GMB did not act much sooner to abandon the restriction on their members' claims to only 3 years.

So while Douglass was able to explain that the original '3 year' decision was down to a national policy of the GMB, there was no information about when this decision was made, who made the decision (within the GMB) and why the decision wasn't quickly reversed when the GMB realised that all the other claimant groups were challenging the very basis of North Lanarkshire's pay arrangements and the Council's job evaluation scheme.

As you would expect, many of those present had very strong opinions about the handling of their equal pay claims and made their views known to Douglas and Paul who agreed to take people's concerns back to GMB headquarters in Glasgow.

For me there are three key points to emerge from the meeting:

• What is a realistic timescale for bringing this whole business to a conclusion?
• Will the GMB give union members in North Lanarkshire a guarantee to compensate them for their financial loss, if the GMB fails to amend their claims from 3 years - to 8 years and 3 months?
• If GMB members are left 'holding the baby' for the GMB's mistakes, can they sue their own union and its advisers over the handling of their equal pay claims?

I don't know the answer to the first two points, but if the GMB does not step up to the plate and accept responsibility for what's happened, then I would say union members need to consider other ways of holding their own union to account.  

Three final points.

The first is that senior GMB officials have finally agreed (after all this time) to attend a GMB members meeting in North Lanarkshire - I'll post the details on the blog site and an happy to go along as well, if I'm invited.

The second is that the timing (5pm) of yesterday's meeting did not suit the backshift GMB members, so if people want to arrange a meeting a little later in the evening I'm happy to attend.

Thirdly, there was some confusion surrounding the venue of yesterday's meeting at the Kirkshaws Social Club and quite a few GMB members who wanted to be present were told that there was no meeting taking place, apparently. So my apologies for that but there will be a 'next time', I suspect.