South Lanarkshire Update
I've received another ash of enquiries from readers in South Lanarkshire who are understandably very angry at the spineless behaviour of their trade unions on the subject of equal pay.
Here's what I wrote on the blog site about the situation in South Lanarkshire following the success of A4ES in challenging the Council's pay arrangements in a long-running case at the Glasgow Employment Tribunal:
"In the meantime don’t be taken in by the ridiculous propaganda of the trade unions.
"For years the unions told council workers that they had no equal pay claims and they actively discouraged people from raising claims in South Lanarkshire. In effect the unions supported the council instead of standing up for their members.
"So what they say now simply can’t be trusted."
I've been told that the union members in South Lanarkshire are now gearing up to sue their own trade unions over the terrible advice they've received on equal pay until Action 4 Equality Scotland started to win the argument at the Employment Tribunals and with a landmark FOI judgement at the UK Supreme Court.
But we achieved this success by committing lots of time, effort and huge resources to the fight for equal pay in South Lanarkshire while the trade unions did not lift a finger to help.
Apparently trade union members are being supported by DM Legal Claims, a local Lanarkshire-based firm, in their fight for justice and if there's anything I can to do help, I'm more than happy to lend a hand.
Because the union reps in South Lanarkshire today are the same people, broadly speaking, who were 'in-charge' when the Council's equal pay scandal was unfolding and if you ask me, they should all hang their heads in shame.
