Parliament and Equal Pay

Here is some information from the Scottish Parliament web site on how to submit a public petition for consideration by MSPs.

Now I think a petition about what's happening to the equal pay claims of GMB members in North Lanarkshire may well attract a lot of attention because it would draw attention to two important issues:

1. The discriminatory pay practices operated by Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council for years
2. The difficulty ordinary union members experience in holding big union bureaucracies to account, given the lack of independent regulation in this area

If GMB members and their supporters are willing to put in some time and effort, I think a public petition could be a very effective way of getting a message across to politicians, the media and the general public.    

So what do you think?

Introduction

Petitioning the Scottish Parliament is one of the principal means through which members of the public can have a direct influence and role

in the policy development process by raising issues of national concern directly with elected Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). MSPs may not themselves submit petitions but otherwise there are no restrictions on who can submit a petition and there is no requirement
to collect numerous signatures in support

of a petition, only one signature is required. Petitions can be lodged in any language. The petitions system is therefore key to meeting the Parliament’s objectives of:

The Public Petitions Committee (PPC)

The PPC is a parliamentary committee dedicated to considering admissible petitions. It generally meets fortnightly when the Parliament is sitting and its meetings are held in public. Its membership broadly reflects the balance of the various political groupings in the Parliament.

New petitions are normally considered at each meeting as well as current petitions. Should the PPC consider it necessary, in order to broaden its understanding of a petition, it may invite a petitioner to give oral evidence before it.

The role of the commitee is to consider the issue raised and decide what action to take in respect of each admissible petition.

This may involve hearing oral evidence from the petitioner or seeking written evidence from organisations with an interest in the issues raised e.g. the Scottish Government.

Following consideration of the written and any oral evidence, a decision will be taken as to what further action to take. The committee may refer a petition to the relevant subject committee of the Parliament for further investigation. It can also bid for parliamentary time for a petition to be debated by the whole Parliament. Having considered a petition the PPC (or the relevant subject committee) may agree that no further action is required and close it. In all cases, the petitioner will be notified of any action.