North Lanarkshire Update

I have asked North Lanarkshire Council for a copy of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) in connection with its late-running job evaluation (JE) review.

But while I'm waiting on the Council's response I thought I'd share with readers the details of what happened last time around. 

NLC Update (29/04/15)

Here's what I said previously on the blog site about North Lanarkshire's Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) which was supposed to protect the interests of the workforce as the Council introduced new pay arrangements back in 2007.

I cannot emphasise strongly enough the importance of carrying out a 'rank order test' at the end of the JES process and before any new pay arrangements are implemented.

Because if this had been done, the extraordinary pay differences between traditional male and female jobs would have been apparent to everyone, especially the women workers whose jobs had been underpaid for years and who were promised a new deal under the 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement.

Now if you ask me this could not possibly have been accidental, since experienced people were involved on both sides and while the whole JES process is important what counts at the end of the day is the outcome and how pay is affected, both individually but also by comparing the pay of one job against others.

For example, if the pay of a hospital cleaner ended up being more than an experienced NHS consultant, it would be immediately obvious to everyone that something had gone badly wrong or that the process was being deliberately manipulated to achieve a particular outcome.

So how did North Lanarkshire end up with so many female dominated jobs still stuck at the bottom of the pay ladder, far behind their male colleagues, and why did the trade unions (who demanded the EIA in the first place) allow this to happen?   

I suggested yesterday that people should ask themselves what's to stop the same thing from happening all over again and I shall have more to say about this in the days ahead.

NLC Update (28/04/15)

Here's the letter from North Lanarkshire's head of human resources, Iris Wylie, which was only made public after a long battle with the Council and an 'order' to release the document following a decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC).

Now if you ask me the intervention of SIC was completely unnecessary, because this kind of information ought to be freely available to anyone who asks for it, especially the workforce in North Lanarkshire whose jobs and livelihoods were being affected by decisions that were being taken behind closed doors.

The crux of the issues is that the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was supposed to ensure that the Council's new pay arrangements were fair, objective and no longer discriminated against predominantly female jobs.

But as everyone now knows that is not what happened and the new NLC pay arrangements introduced in 2007 continued to favour traditional male council jobs which is astonishing, I have to admit.

Even more astonishing is the fact that the Council has not instigated an investigation to discover how this happened and report its findings to elected councillors - and the workforce, of course.

Gerry Crawley, by the way, is or at least was a regional officer (full-time official) with Unison and I'm sure that all of these issues, and more, were discussed in great detail by the local trade unions. 

More to follow in the days ahead, but the big question for the workforce in NLC to ponder is: 

"If this could happen once, what's to stop it from happening all over again?"

North Lanarkshire Update (09/02/15)

I promised to share the letter from North Lanarkshire's head of personnel services  setting out the terms of reference for an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Council's new pay proposals back in 2006. 

Now it's pretty clear that this EIA didn't do the trick because what we've ended up in North Lanarkshire with is a 'dog's dinner' of a mess and more equal pay claims that you can shake a stick at.

I will have more to say on the contents of the letter in the days ahead, but in the meantime here is what the Council wanted to prevent people from seeing - a letter from Iris Wylie (now head of human resources) to Gerry Crawley of Unison. 


From:      Head of Personnel Services
Sent:       07 March 2006 12.10
To:           'g.crawley@unison.co.uk'
Cc:          Chief Executive; Director of Administration; Dinwoodie Linda; Selkirk Brian
Subject:  JOB EVALUATION - EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Gerry,

The Chief Executive has passed to me a copy of your e-mail of 6 March, 2006 in response to the Council's final offer. You have confirmed your request for an Equality Impact Assessment to be carried out by the Council with a jointly agreed independent pay expert being commissioned to undertake this assessment.

You have not specified the areas you would wish to have covered in the impact assessment. Could I suggest that the Equality Impact Assessment focus on the following areas:-

• for the pay model overall, identify the number of males and females who are green, white and red circles as well as the proportionate percentages

• within each of the 18 grades within pay model NLC 5C, identify the number of males and females within each grade as well as the proportionate percentages

• within each grade identify the number of males and females who are green circles i.e. moving up the rank order as well as the proportionate percentages 

• within each grade identify the number of males and females who are red circles i.e. moving down the rank order as well as the proportionate percentages 

• identify predominantly male or predominantly female jobs in the existing grading structure and confirm how they move within the new evaluated rank order of jobs i.e. upwards or downwards

• check whether any predominantly female jobs are close ti the upper boundary of a grade

• check whether any predominantly male jobs are close to the lower boundary of a grade

Unless there are any other points which you feel are essential to cover in the Equality Impact Assessment, I would suggest that the work be taken forward as specified above. If you wish to revise the specification in any way, please let me know by close of business today if at all possible.

From the discussions which you had involving John O'Hagan, Director of Administration, last week I understand that Rosie Docherty, consultant to the Cosla Job Evaluation Consortium would be an acceptable independent expert to undertake this work. I should be grateful to receive your confirmation and I shall then engage Rosie to undertake the work specified above.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Iris  

NLC Update (27/04/15)

As regular readers know I fought a long Freedom of Information (FoI) battle with North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) in order to discover more about the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) which was carried out before the Council finally implemented new pay arrangements in January 2007.

Now the Equality Impact Assessment had been demanded by the trade unions and the terms of reference were agreed with the trade unions via the Council's head of human resources, Iris Wylie.

The declared purpose of the EIA was, of course, to ensure that all jobs were treated fairly and that the principle of 'equal pay for work of equal value' was at the heart of  the new pay arrangements which flowed from the Council's job evaluation scheme (JES).

As everyone now knows, this is not what happened and the new pay arrangements favoured traditional male jobs which is astonishing if you ask me, especially as the simple common sense test of looking at the 'rank order' of jobs would have shown that many predominantly female jobs had lost out during the whole JES process.

I will have more to say about this issue in the days ahead because NLC will have to review the grades of various Council jobs and if you ask me, it is essential that this further process is conducted in a completely transparent manner.

So that NLC employees can see what's going on for themselves and understand how the current failings of the JES are to be addressed, otherwise there's a very real risk of things being done behind closed doors and without proper scrutiny which is precisely what happened before, of course.    

More on this subject to follow.  

  

FOI and NLC (31/01/15)

I am due to hear from North Lanarkshire again on Monday 2nd February 2015 the date by which the has to disclose the information so ordered by the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC). 

Yet again North Lanarkshire argued that the release of these details would be 'prejudicial to the effective conduct of public affairs', but SIC gave the Council's case short shrift and agreed with me that this was nonsense.

I said to SIC at the time that North Lanarkshire was really just trying to shield senior officials from proper scrutiny and I think I've been proved right.

So let's see what arrives on Monday - I can hardly wait.  

NLC and FOI (4 December 2014)

The Scottish Information Commissioner has been in touch to confirm that an appeal I registered against North Lanarkshire Council will now proceed to a formal investigation.

As regular readers know this involved a refusal by the Council to release details of an email setting out the extent of the consultation which took place between the Council and the trade unions over an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA).

I will share the contents of my appeal to SIC in due course, but in the meantime here's what I had to say to North Lanarkshire Council back in September in support of my case that this information belongs in the public domain.    

Curiouser and Curiouser 4 (5 September 2014)

Here's my FoI Review Request to North Lanarkshire Council regarding its refusal to release details of an Equality Impact Assessment (EIS) carried out back in 2006.

Now I don't know what the Council has to hide, but if you ask me the Council does not have a valid reason to withhold this information and, as such, is in danger of turning itself into a laughing stock.

Maybe someone from within the Council will leak this information because other people must know what went on, for example Unison must know who was involved on their side and the extent of the consultation with the trade unions.

September 2014

June Murray

Executive Director of Corporate Services

North Lanarkshire Council

By email

Dear June

FoI Review Request

I refer to the attached letter from North Lanarkshire Council's Freedom of Information Coordinator, Angelene Kirkpatrick, and would like to register the following Review Request in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

1. First of all, I have to say that it is completely absurd for the Council to suggest that the release of information regarding an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out in 2006 is in any way prejudicial to the effective conduct of public affairs in 2014. 
2. In my view the exact opposite is true and the release of this information would allow people (including the council workforce) to see for themselves how the terms of reference of the EIA were drafted and the extent of the consultation that allegedly took place with Unison.
3. North Lanarkshire Council has not offered any evidence to demonstrate how the release of this information would impact adversely on the ongoing Employment Tribunal or any settlement discussions taking place outside of the Employment Tribunal, but as far as I am concerned the two things are entirely unconnected.
4. Furthermore, I would say that instead of acting in an open and transparent manner the Council is in danger of being seen to be trying to shield senior officials from proper scrutiny, on a matter which affects large numbers of staff and involves the use of significant amounts of public money.
5. So taking all the issues into account I hope you will reverse the decision to reject my initial FoI request because the Council is bound to lose this argument, in my view, if I have to appeal this matter to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by email at: markirvine@compuserve.com

Kind regards

Mark Irvine     

Curiouser and Curiouser (3)

I don't know who is calling the shots over at North Lanarkshire Council 's Freedom of Information (FoI) operation these days, but if you ask me whoever is in charge has taken leave of their senses.

Because the Council has just refused my FoI request asking for details of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) which the Council carried out back in 2006 on the ridiculous grounds that disclosing this information would "prejudice substantially the effective conduct of public affairs".

But I have to ask myself in all seriousness - 'How can it possibly prejudice anything in 2014 to be told who Iris Wylie was talking to in Unison back in 2006 and how can people knowing more about the EIA terms of reference possibly do the Council any harm?"

Unless the Council has something to hide of course which is why I'll be submitting a Review Request pretty damn quick - so watch this space.

Gavin Whitefield

Chief Executive

North Lanarkshire Council

BY E-MAIL TO: whitefieldg@northlan.gov.uk

Dear Mr Whitefield

FOISA Request 

I would like to make the following request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002.

1 Please provide me with a copy of the e-mail from the Council's Head of Personnel to Unison dated 7 March 2006 which sets out detailed terms of reference for the Equality Impact Assessment conducted by the Council over its plans to implement the 'single status' agreement with effect from 1 April 2006.

I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail to: markirvine@compuserve.com

    

Kind regards

Mark Irvine

Curiouser and Curiouser 2 (18 August 2014)

I wrote recently about the Equality Impact Assessment Impact (EIA) carried out by North Lanarkshire back in 2006, the purpose of which must have been to ensure that the Council's job evaluation scheme (JES) was operating in a non-discriminatory way.

In other words not treating male jobs more favourably than their women colleagues.

Yet that is exactly what appears to have happened in North Lanarkshire, if recent developments at the Employment Tribunal are anything to go by because the Council has been forced to concede that many jobs have been wrongly graded and that the bonus payments of male workers were into account when these jobs were moved over on to new pay structures.

So I was amazed I have to say at the following comments from the EIA report which is marked "Private and Confidential" and is dated 14 March 2006"

"Implementation Strategy"

"While I have not been asked to review the entire implementation proposal I understand that pay equality in the new pay and grading structure is underpinned in the proposed NLC arrangements for:

• assimilation to the new structure
• incremental progression
• improved detriment protection beyond the provisions of the SJC 'single status' agreement
• addressing pay inequality arising from bonus payments to male manual workers"   

Now I'm almost lost for words at complacency involved because what was the point in asking someone independent of the Council to review the impact of the JES and the pay arrangements that flowed from the JES, if that person did not actually complete the job?

If you ask me that is and was a completely crazy state of affairs which is why I've submitted a further FoI request about the EIA's terms of reference which appear to have been set by Iris Wylie, the Council's head of human resources.