North Lanarkshire Update

Here's another of the posts I wrote in May 2015 about North Lanarkshire Council's job evaluation (JE) review exercise which is now over five months date with no end date in site. 

Needless to say the Council has not followed my advice about making the process as open and transparent as possible and the trade unions have are apparently gone along with this approach which keeps members completely in the dark. 

Now I can understand why the NLC behaves in this arrogant fashion because that's how the Council tends to go about its business and, as regular readers know, Council managers 'got away with murder' when the last JE exercise was conducted back in 2006/07.  

But I can't get my head around the behaviour of the trade unions whose lack of feedback to the members affected by these events seems quite incredible to me. 

Because I always thought of trade unions as organisations which actively represent and champion the interests of their members although now I'm not so sure. 

North Lanarkshire Update (28/05/15)

In a recent post I wrote about various aspects of re-evaluating various North Lanarkshire Council jobs following criticism of the scores and grades awarded at the long-running Employment Tribunal hearing. 

One of the starting points in the whole process is to draw up new Job Descriptions (JDs) so that the duties and responsibilities of every job involved is described accurately and fully, i.e. without leaving anything out.

If you ask me, the good practice way of carrying out this exercise would be to publish a draft of every new Job Description on the internet so that people who are not asked to complete a questionnaire understand the process, can see for themselves what is going on and have the opportunity to comment before anything is finalised.

Another good reason for doing this is that job evaluation is a comparative exercise, so it is important to understand what is happening to other jobs involved in the process and not just your own.

Because it has been known in the past for employers to 'pad-out' certain jobs with extra duties and responsibilities which gives them a leg up when it comes to assessing what scores to award under each (job evaluation) Factor Heading.

So there's nothing to stop people getting together to coordinate this important work given the implications for the NLC workforce and again if every step was published on the internet along the way, people would know what is happening and have the opportunity to comment.

In other words, transparency and consistency go hand in hand when it comes to job evaluation.   

North Lanarkshire Update (20/05/16)

Here's another post on North Lanarkshire Council's job evaluation (JE) review which I wrote back in May 2015.

As regular readers know, this review seems to be in trouble because not only is the exercise running 6 months late, the whole project is shrouded in secrecy with the workforce being kept completely in the dark. 

Now the review is being 'led' by senior council management and the trade unions, but no one is clear as to which jobs are included in the review while others are left out.

Take school Clerical Assistants and Housing Support Wardens, for example, which Action 4 Equality Scotland has been battling over in the Employment Tribunals (ET) for the past year and more.

North Lanarkshire Council refused to accept that these female dominated jobs were on a par with traditional male jobs, but they comprehensively lost that argument in the Employment Tribunals so you would think that all of these posts would now be included in the late-running JE exercise.

Because the logic of the ET decision is that all of these posts have been incorrectly graded and not just those taken up by Action 4 Equality Scotland.

The same is true for Classroom Assistants for whom the fight continues because NLC stubbornly refuses to accept that the CA's job doesn't measure up to the work done by a council gardener - even though there is only one point of difference under NLC's widely criticised 2006/07 JE scheme.

So it's a bit of a shocker if you ask me and doesn't bode too well for the latest JE review which should have reported before the end of December 2015.

North Lanarkshire Update (23/05/15)

Lots of readers have been in touch to ask about the re-evaluation of various jobs in North Lanarkshire Council which has been prompted by the council being forced to concede at the Employment Tribunal that a number of female dominated jobs had not been assessed and graded correctly back in 2006/07.

As part of the equal pay settlement it was agreed by all the parties that the process of carrying out a further job evaluation would be down to the council and the trade unions.

Now that is quite sensible because while Action 4 Equality Scotland (A4ES) has led the fight for equal pay in North Lanarkshire all these years, the council (management and councillors) along with the unions make up the permanent collective bargaining structures in North Lanarkshire.

Part of the agreement is that A4ES will be kept fully informed about what's going on and how the council and the unions intend to tackle the problems that clearly exist within the present grading structure.

Apparently the unions have issued some limited information on the process which says that the following jobs will be subject to further evaluation:  

• Playground Supervisors
• School Crossing Patrollers
• Home Support Workers

• Road Sweepers
• Refuse Collectors
• Gardeners at grades 4 and 5
• Chargehand Gardeners at grade 6

Now the list contains only the three female dominated jobs which were originally identified at the Employment Tribunal hearing.

Other employees such as Admin & Clerical Workers and Classroom Assistants, for example, may have a case to argue that their jobs and factor scores should be reviewed as well which could be done by bringing a group of such workers together to look in detail at the existing job description and individual factor scores.

Now this would also require a proper look at the male jobs to compare what scores these jobs have been awarded under all the different factor headings to ensure consistency and that jobs are not being treated in isolation.

As I've said before on the blog site what would help this process is maximum transparency and openness which could be achieved by putting all of this information on the Council's web site, for example, where everyone could see what is going on and have the opportunity to comment if they wish.

Over the coming weeks I'll do my best to answer people's questions and requests for information on the blog site, so watch this space.

North Lanarkshire Update(19/05/16)

Here's what I said about the 'new' North Lanarkshire job evaluation (JE) review back in May 2015 which the Council was forced to agree to as part of last year's equal pay settlement. 

Now if the Council had agreed to my suggestions I suspect the JE exercise would be in much better shape than it is now, running six months late and with the workforce growing increasingly restive after being kept completely in the dark.

Apparently Home Carers in North Lanarkshire received the following text message the other day which looks to me to be exactly the same as the one posted by the local Unison branch recently:

"As you will be aware, the Council and unions have been undertaking a joint re-evaluation process for certain posts, overseen and validated by an Independent Technical Expert.  The joint team has now concluded their re-evaluation assessments and the Independent Technical Expert is now undertaking an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) on the outcomes.  The outcomes and EIA require to be considered by the Joint Re-evaluation Board and Council before employees can be notified of the outcome of the re-evaluation of their job.  Dates are currently being scheduled for a meeting of the Joint re-evaluation Board."

As I said on the blog site this raises a lot more questions than answers and if you ask me what people really deserve is some straight talking and hard information, instead of being treated like idiots.

North Lanarkshire Update (01/05/15) Here's my Action 4 Equality Scotland 'manifesto' on the way in which a further round of job evaluation should be carried out in North Lanarkshire Council to safeguard the interests of the workforce.    1 A firm from commitment from all parties to complete openness and transparency during the re-evaualtion process 2 Publication of all female dominated jobs to be re-evaluated and reasons for selection 3 Publication of all male dominated jobs to be re-evaluated and reasons for selection 4 Publication of all revised job descriptions and an opportunity for input/comment 5 Publication of all JES scores and individual JES factor scores  6 Publication of a 'rank order test' before any new proposals are finalised 7 Agreement to a further Equality Impact Assessment (prior to implementation) by an independent person not selected by the Council which revisit the issue of grade boundaries Now I'm sure there will be lots of people within the workforce who would support this 'seven point plan' and I am happy to work with the trade unions as well to ensure that there is no repeat of what happened in the past. So, I'm prepared to offer my services to carry out a further Equality Impact Assessment, not just because the last one didn't work out too well, but in order to achieve an outcome that is seen to be fair by everyone involved, especially the workforce.  In fact, I'll go further and say I'd be prepared to do conduct another Equality Impact Assessment free-of-charge which would also save the Council some money into the bargain.