Glasgow - Court of Session
The Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, has set the following dates to deal with the outstanding equal pay claims against Glasgow City Council.
- 25th to 27th April 2017 - a three day hearing on the pay protection and assimilation period
- 2nd to 5th May 2017 - four days focusing on the City Council's job evaluation scheme, also known locally as the WPBR (Workforce Pay and Benefits Review)
Now the timing could not be better if you ask me with the elections to Glasgow City Council taking place on Thursday 4th May 2017.
My message to the Labour leaders of Glasgow City Council is to come clean and explain the pay arrangements that were put in place after the introduction of its local job evaluation scheme (WPBR) in 2006/07.
So if Frank McAveety and his colleagues don't have the political will to resolve then issue, then step aside and make way for those who do.
Operation Take-Out Frank? (29/01/17)
I've had a great response to the recent post setting out my plans for a big equal pay campaign in the run up to the council elections in May 2017.
Some of these activities are already in hand and will be reported on the blog site as things take shape in the days ahead.
But there has been surprisingly strong support for the idea of fielding an 'Equal Pay' candidate in the Glasgow Shettleston seat where the Council's Labour leader, Frank McAveety, is standing again.
Now that would really set the cat amongst the pigeons if you ask me, as I doubt very much that Councillor McAveety can muster a credible defence to Glasgow's behaviour in relation to equal pay over the years.
As regular readers know, thousands of low paid City Council workers were 'bullied' and intimidated into accepting poor offers of settlement in the run-up to Christmas 2005 although those who threw their lot in with A4ES received a much better deal, of course.
So 'once bitten, twice shy' as they say and even though Frank was an MSP in the Scottish Parliament at the time, the responsibility for sorting things out lies with the Labour-run City Council which Councillor McAveety currently leads.
A number of readers have asked if I would consider standing against Councillor McAveety, given my knowledge of the City Council and the long fight for equal pay.
Now that's an intriguing proposition, but we have a long way to go because I'm told that the relevant papers do not have to be registered until the end of March 2017.
But who knows, maybe I will throw down the gauntlet in Shettleston and challenge Frank McAveety in his own back yard.
Maybe it's time for Operation Take-Out Frank?
Glasgow and Equal Pay (06/01/17)
Readers in Glasgow are in touch regularly to ask what kind of equal pay campaign will get underway in the weeks ahead.
Well that's something I will give detailed thought to over the festive season, but here is a 'starter for ten' as the say ion University Challenge:
- Issue a detailed public statement explaining the basis of the dispute
- Highlight Glasgow's position as the only major council in Scotland not to have reached agreement with A4ES over its post-job evaluation pay arrangements.
- Arrange to brief the Leader of the Opposition Group on Glasgow City Council and individual councillors who may have been kept in the dark by the current council leadership.
- Arrange to brief all MSPs and MPs within the boundaries of Glasgow City Council who are all SNP politicians
- Organise a series of local meetings across the city to encourage the 5,500 A4ES clients in Glasgow to get involved in the campaign
- Assist equal pay claimants in Glasgow to get their message across by lobbying local councillors, Holyrood MSPs and Westminster MPs
- Organise case studies for the local media including The Herald, Evening Times, Daily Record etc
- Organise a major advertising campaign across Glasgow in the run-up to the May 2017 council elections
- Consider standing an 'Equal Pay' candidate in one or more key Glasgow constituencies
- Seek a meeting with Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister) as a Glasgow MSP to discuss how she and the SNP Government can help hold Glasgow to account
Remember, 'many hands make light work' and the more people who get involved in the campaign the sooner this will all be over.
