Glasgow and Equal Pay
The leader of Glasgow City Council, Frank McAveety, is a big music buff and has a fantastic collection of vinyl records, enough to fill a domestic garage.
So I am starting my own music competition to find a suitable number that can speak to the City Council's appalling behaviour over equal pay for the past 12 years.
I did something similar in South Lanarkshire Council a little while back although that focused more on the craven behaviour of the trade unions who actively discouraged local union members from pursuing equal pay claims against the Labour-run council.
All suggestions for the Glasgow competition should be emailed to me (in confidence) and I'll be awarding a small prize to the winner in due course.
Anyone can enter the contest, especially the City Council employees who are still fighting for equal pay, but out of respect for the foot-soldiers, I'm afraid, members of the senior management team are ineligible to take part.
So to give readers some inspiration and encouragement here's my entry to the South Lanarkshire competition - Gerry Rafferty and ''Can I have My Money Back?'.
Gerry Rafferty Sings (14/08/15)
I'd like to nominate the following song as the new anthem for the Unison branch in South Lanarkshire Council - "Can I Have My Money Back?", by Gerry Rafferty.
If readers have any other suggestions, I'll happily share them on the blog site.
Can I Have My Money Back? (14/08/15)
14 August 2015
Unison contributions or membership fees operate on a sliding scale based on what people earn - £1.30 a month for a salary of up to £2,000 and a maximum of £22.50 a month for those earning over £35,000 a year.
The 5th point on this scale is £7.85 a month which is paid by members earning £11,001 to £14,000 a year - and that seems like a reasonable figure to use as the contribution Unison members pay on average in your average Unison branch.
So let's apply that figure to Unison in South Lanarkshire and calculate how much the union has collected or earned in contributions from members in places like Hamilton, East Kilbride, Rutherglen and Lanark over the past 14 years.
Now I'm using 14 years for a good reason - because the 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement was signed by Unison and the Scottish council employers - including South Lanarkshire Council - just over 14 years ago.
The South Lanarkshire Unison branch claims to have 6,000 members on its books - so let's say only 5,000 of that number (a conservative figure) are directly employed by South Lanarkshire Council.
5,000 members x £7.85 x 12 months x 14 years = £6,594,000 (£6.59 million UK pounds) - which is a whole lot of money by any standards, but the serious question I'd like to pose is this:
"Does anyone in their right mind believe that Unison members in South Lanarkshire have received value for money for their £6.59 million - especially in the fight for Equal Pay over the past 14 years?"
I suspect not and if I were a Unison member in South Lanarkshire Council - I'd be asking for a full refund or in the words of the famous Gerry Rafferty song 'Can I Have My Money Back?'.
