First Minister In-Waiting

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I thought I would share my recent email to Scotland's First Minister in-waiting, Nicola Sturgeon, regarding the foot-dragging behaviour of North Lanarkshire Council over equal pay.

-----Original Message-----
From: markirvine@compuserve.com 
To: nicola.sturgeon 
Sent: Wed, Apr 20, 2016 9:52 am
Subject: Foot-Dragging Councils
Dear Nicola

I read your recent comments about getting tough with council bosses who are dragging their feet over equal pay and thought you might be interested in the latest post from my blog site regarding Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council.

I plan to send this post to local MPs in the North Lanarkshire Council area and to candidates standing in the Scottish Parliament elections.



Kind regards


Mark Irvine


Now Individual claimants are in an even better position than me to say what they think about North Lanarkshire's behaviour over the years.

So don't be shy, let Nicola and other politicians know what it's like to be treated like a second class citizen as far as your rights to equal pay and fair treatment at work are concerned: nicola.sturgeon@snp.org 

Remember that 'many hands make light work' and the more people who speak up and make their voice heard, the sooner this will all be over. 





Foot-Dragging Councils (20/04/16)



Another big equal row with North Lanarkshire is brewing over  the Council's foot-dragging antics in relation to equal pay and the rights of women employees to access the Local Government Pension Scheme on the same basis as their male colleagues. 

No doubt readers will agree that this is particularly relevant given Nicola Sturgeon's recent comments about getting tough with council bosses in relation to equal pay.

The background to this latest scandal is that over a year ago, A4ES equal pay claimants in North Lanarkshire Council won a decision in the Glasgow Employment Tribunal which allowed some of the claimants to have their awards paid on a pensionable basis.

In effect those who qualified would benefit from receiving a larger, tax free, lump sum and a higher annual pension going forward, due to the employees and the employer both making additional contributions to the local government pension scheme (LGPS).

A year on and NLC has still to pass this information on the Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF) and even though A4ES has provided the relevant figures as well, SPF (who manage the fund on behalf of member councils) is not willing to accept information from anyone other than the employer, i.e. Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council.

To add insult to injury, back on 7th March 2016 SPF told the lawyers (HBJ Gateley) who are acting on behalf of the A4ES claimants that they had, in fact, received the necessary details from North Lanarkshire on 3rd March 2016 .

But incredibly, some six weeks later, on 19th April 2016, SPF suddenly announced that they are not in possession of the information that they require from NLC - without any explanation as to why they said the exact opposite on 7th March 2016.

So the long suffering, low paid claimants go round and round in circles while waiting on senior officials in NLC and SPF to get their fingers out and sort out this appalling mess; officials who, in many cases, are being paid very big salaries (many tens of thousands of pounds a year) from the public purse.

I am obviously highlighting the issue on the blog site and bringing this latest debacle to the attention of MSPs and candidates in the Scottish Parliament elections including Nicola Sturgeon at: nicola.sturgeon@snp.org

Readers of the blog site can play a valuable role as, so don't be shy about sending an email asking politicians what they are doing to help their local constituents.

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