North Lanarkshire Update
The latest news from North Lanarkshire is of yet another frustrating delay, on the part of the Council, in making the long-awaited, backdated JE payments to Home Support workers.
Apparently, a senior official within the Council has to sign off the paperwork before letters to individual claimants can be released, but this person has gone off on leave and the task will not be completed until week beginning Monday 7 November 2016.
As regular readers know, the results of the JE review were not announced until June 2016 even though the exercise was originally due to finish by the end of December 2015.
The Council then gave a commitment to processing all the information relating to backpay by the end of September 2015 - yet here we are in November and the staff concerned are still waiting on their back money.
The whole business is a terrible a farce if you ask me and it makes you wonder why the Council has not put a great deal more thought, time and extra resources into getting things right.
In any event, as soon as there is any further news I'll share the details on the blog site.
North Lanarkshire Update (18/10/16)
As regular readers know, Councillor David Stocks has been making enquiries about the latest NLC equal pay 'fiasco', in his capacity as leader of the SNP Opposition Group in North Lanarkshire Council.
In his response Councillor Stocks says that the Council now aims to make the outstanding JE (job evaluation) backdated payments in week commencing Monday 7 November 2016 - if everything goes according to plan.
Now that's further away than anyone would wish, but at least Monday 7 November provides a definite date and timescale for putting this issue to bed which has been sadly lacking up until now.
So fingers crossed and let's see what happens in the days ahead - I will share any further developments on the blog site as we go along.
North Lanarkshire Update (15/10/16)
Some progress to report from North Lanarkshire even if there's a way to go before this business is put to bed!
The Council has finally provided A4ES with detailed figures regarding backpay settlements in respect of the late-running job evaluation (JE) exercise.
The only 'fly in the ointment' is that these figures are not yet complete having been supplied on a Gross basis, i.e. without Income Tax, National Insurance and Pension contributions being deducted (where appropriate).
So the North Lanarkshire Council still needs to calculate Income Tax, National Insurance and Pension deductions in order to arrive at Net settlement figures payable to individual employees.
A4ES have provided a suggested method for calculating these deduction to the Council which will, hopefully, speed up this process - however these Net figures also need to be checked and agreed by the Council.
Once these figures have been finalised, written offers of settlement can then be sent out to individual A4ES clients
I'll share any further developments on the blog site as soon as they occur, but it looks as though we could be approaching the finishing line, after many months of delay.
So fingers crossed, although I think it's wise to keep the pressure up on the Council until we have a firm date for settlements offers to be sent out.
Which is not a lot to ask, if you ask me.
Cockamamy Council (06/10/16)
While Home Support workers in North Lanarkshire are still fighting their Labour-run Council over equal pay, it's worth reminding readers about the bizarre 'performance pay' scheme NLC operated for years - albeit only for its most senior and highly paid officials.
Paul Jukes, the former executive director of environmental services, is now the Council's chief executive, of course, and quite incredibly if you ask me, his immediate predecessor (Gavin Whitefield) was paid more than Scotland's First Minister.
North Lanarkshire Update (29/04/16)
I thought I'd share this post from the blog site archive which highlights the fact that thought the period when the lowest paid council workers in North Lanarkshire were still fighting for their right to equal pay, their bosses were receiving hefty bonuses for 'good performance'.
Now this was despite the council's senior officials:
- making a complete dog's dinner of the Council's pay arrangements
- keeping women workers in the dark over the huge differences in pay between male and female dominated jobs
- denying there was a problem until the Council's finally collapsed at the long-running Glasgow Employment Tribunal.
