SLC Update (10/08/15)

Here's my second post about the notorious 'Stewards Briefing' issued by the Unison South Lanarkshire branch back in August 2005.

Now far from 'cherry picking' a few easy equal pay cases Action 4 Equality Scotland ended up representing well over 3,000 clients in South Lanarkshire while Unison, of course, was acting as a 'cheerleader' for the Council and effectively singing the praises of its job evaluation scheme (JES).

In fact the local branch secretary of Unison, Stephen Smellie (pronounced Smiley not Smelly by the way), even went so far as to give evidence in support of the Council at a marathon Employment Tribunal hearing which concluded that South Lanarkshire's much vaunted JES was 'unfit for purpose'.

Now unlike the trade unions who were raking in millions in members' contribution, A4ES charged not a penny piece for its services until the equal pay fight in South Lanarkshire was won, a battle that took almost 10 years and included a landmark FoI challenge which went all the way to the UK Supreme Court. 

So you would think the Unison branch would be show some humility, integrity even, by calling on those directly responsible for the terrible equal pay mess in South Lanarkshire to resign from their positions.

More Belly Laughs (26 August 2013)

"Who are these 'No Win No Fee' lawyers"

"Action 4 Equality are led by a lawyer called Stefan Cross who has made a name for himself, and lots of money, cherry picking cases in the North of England. The "No win no fee" lawyers identify where employers have been slow to address equal pay. They pick a few easy cases where they can demonstrate a woman doing similar work valued work is paid less than a man. If they win at tribunal they cream off up to 30% of the settlement for themselves. Workers going with them are obliged to sign a contract that gives them the right to drop the case whenever they choose, usually when they deem that they can't make enough profit." 

Now there are so many things wrong with this ridiculous statement it's difficult to choose where to start, but here are a few obvious points to correct.

South Lanarkshire Council was not 'slow' to deal with equal pay and single status - in fact the Council claims to have been the first in Scotland to apply the 1999 Agreement (in 2004) - so South Lanarkshire has not been targeted for being at the back of the pack.

Instead South Lanarkshire is in a terrible mess because it deliberately ignored advice from COSLA (the employers' body) on job evaluation - having helped to draw up that advice - and instead went its own arrogant way with an in-house job evaluation scheme which has since been declared as 'unfit for purpose' by the Employment Tribunals.

The trade unions at Scottish level gave the same advice to their local branches, but the local union reps in South Lanarkshire seem to have become far too close to the Council - because why else would they fail to heed the advice of their national union leaders? 

Readers can draw their own conclusions, but in my experience this is a classic case of   trade unions at a local level becoming far to cosy and chummy with the Council - to the detriment of their lowest paid members.

Action 4 Equality Scotland has not picked up a 'few easy cases' which is a laughable thing to say - especially as A4ES has been fighting for equal pay in South Lanarkshire for the past 8 years while the trade unions, including Unison, were doing their level best to discourage members from raising equal pay claims.

A4ES charges a success fee of 10% on clients' settlements and that figure has always been the same - which seems like a great deal to me when you think that all the costs of fighting these cases since 2005 has not cost our clients a single penny.

The trade unions on the other and have been taking their members' union contributions - week in week out since 1999 - yet all the while they have been making a complete dog's dinner of equal pay.