North Lanarkshire Update
Here's a copy of an email I've just sent to the chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council's, Paul Jukes, at the following email address: jukes@northlan.gov.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Irvine
To: jukesp
Sent: Fri, Jul 1, 2016
Subject: North Lanarkshire Council - Job Evaluation (JE) Review
Dear Paul
North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) - Job Evaluation (JE) Review
I have received literally hundreds of email and Facebook enquiries recently (from NLC employees) regarding the Council's late-running job evaluation (JE) review.
As I am sure you appreciate, the responsibility for answering people's queries and concerns lies with North Lanarkshire Council, as their employer, and not the trade unions.
To my mind the best way to deal with this situation would be for the Council to publish full details of the JE Review on its web site and also to share this information with all claimant organisations, but as far as I know this has still to be done even though key aspects of the JE Review were announced to the press weeks ago.
So the Council workforce has lots of unanswered concerns and questions and no doubt you understand the importance of treating all NLC employees equally, regardless of whether or not they are members of a trade union.
In the circumstances, I plan to post this email on my blog site and redirect people towards you as the Council's chief executive and head of the paid service. If and when more sensible arrangements are made, I am happy to publicise these too since that would seem to me to be in everyone's best interests.
Kind regards
Mark Irvine
Now if you see me there's no need for NLC employees to be given the 'run around' in this way and if proper arrangements were in place, there would be no need for people to bombard the Council's chief executive with huge numbers of individuals enquiries.
But until this does happen my advice to employees who have queries about the Council's late-running JE Review is to email Paul Jukes directly.
North Lanarkshire Update (30/06/16)
I said the other that that I was overwhelmed with enquiries about North Lanarkshire Council's late-running job evaluation (JE) review.
Not just that, I also explained that I was unable to answer most of these queries because the Council's senior management and the local trade unions are the 'architects' of the latest JE exercise - not Action 4 Equality Scotland (A4ES).
A4ES is attempting to clarify various issues with the Council, but so far at least the Council has been unable or unwilling to explain important aspects of the JE Review.
The efforts to get some sense out of North Lanarkshire Council will continue and any news will be reported on the blog site.
In the meantime, individual employees who are being given the run around may wish to drop a note to the Council's chief executive Paul Jukes who can be contacted at the following email address: jukesp@northlan.gov.uk
For the avoidance of any doubt equal pay claimants whose cases were previously handled by Stefan Cross Solicitors, Fox Cross Solicitors and Fox and Partners Solicitors are now being represented by Action 4 Equality Scotland Limited.
North Lanarkshire Update (22/06/16)
Now I don't have the time or resources to respond to all of these queries on an individual basis which is why I tend to communicate with readers via the blog site.
I will do what I can to shed some light on aspects of the JE review that are causing people most concern, but I can't of course speak for the Council and/or the trade unions.
Nor can I necessarily explain the problems or anomalies about a 'deal' which the Council and the unions have struck between themselves, not least because many of the details are still unclear even at this late stage.
So my advice to trade union members is to raise a query with your own trade union in the first instance, in writing, and keep a copy of your enquiry for future reference along with any response received.
For readers who are not in a trade union, your line manager is the first port of call and again I would raise any queries in writing (by email) rather than over the phone, for obvious reasons.
