The Fight for Equal Pay in Glasgow

Friday's equal pay meeting at the Dixon Hall on Glasgow's south side went very well, I thought.

Around 100 people attended, predominantly Home Carers from Cordia, but I also met with Cooks, Cleaners, Janitors, Clerical Workers and Classroom Assistants, so a wide cross section of council staff turned out on the day.

As the new leader of an SNP-led Glasgow City Council, Cllr Susan Aitken re-stated the new administration's intention to end the long-running legal battle in the courts and bring about a negotiated settlement of all the outstanding equal pay claims.

Cllr Aitken also gave an assurance that an urgent 'round table' meeting would be held soon  with Action 4 Equality Scotland and the other claimant organisations, Unison and the GMB, and that Council leaders would attend this first meeting to help 'set the scene' for future talks.   

Lots of questions and comments were made which I will deal with in a separate post, but if you ask me the most significant development was confirmation that at long last a serious dialogue with the City Council about potential settlement terms is about to get underway.  

I think it's pretty clear that a big battle is still taking place behind the scenes with senior council officials and advisers who would prefer to keep fighting through the courts which is perhaps not surprising, because many of these people are responsible for the 'deep hole' that Glasgow now finds itself in today.

Yet by refusing to accept the unanimous decision of Scotland's highest civil court that Glasgow's WPBR pay scheme is 'unfit for purpose' these individuals keep the good times rolling for a while more at least and can just walk away when it suits their purpose, having wreaked havoc on thousands of lives as well as the City Council's finances.

So the proof of the pudding will be in this long awaited 'round table' meeting getting down to serious business which means setting out a clear road map and timetable for achieving a settlement of the outstanding claims.

Visit the blog site again tomorrow for an update on lots of other important issues that were raised at Friday's meeting including: 

• Job Evaluation - potions and good practice
• Court of Session - seeking 'leave to appeal'
• Strike action - would this help or hinder the cause
• Settlement process - what happened in other councils
• Reporting back - how to keep people informed and involved

  

The Fight For Equal in Glasgow (20/10/17)

I am going along to an Equal Pay meeting later today which is being held at 1.45pm in the Dixon Hall on the south side of Glasgow.

I understand that the Leader of the City Council, Cllr Susan Aitken, is planning to be there which is good news if you ask me, because there is precious little information coming from City Council council officials.

I hope there will be some definite progress to report on two particular issues:

• the provision of pay data on the operation of the WPBR/EDC - which the Council has been promising for months
• the establishment of a proper negotiating process and timetable for settling all of the outstanding equal pat claims

So fingers crossed!

I will post a brief report and my own thoughts about the meeting when I get a minute over the weekend. 

  

The Fight for Equal Pay in Glasgow (19/10/17)

Here is my latest FoI request to Glasgow City Council which asks for copies of or access to the minutes of the council's senior management team over the past 10 years.

Now it's my belief that this is not really an FoI request at all because this information ought to be freely available (as it is in other councils) from the City Council's archives in both hard copy and digital form.

But I decided to submit a formal FoI request because this forces the City Council to respond and explain its position, in writing, which has the the advantage that the FoI process provides for the independent scrutiny of GCC's response via the Scottish Information Commissioner, if necessary.

The City Council could have responded to my request days ago, in a positive and helpful manner, by explaining how and where this information can be accessed either at the City Chambers or elsewhere.

So far I've heard nothing further and I suspect I'm unlikely to do so until the council exhausts its deadline for responding to my FoI request (20 working days) which will take us into the middle of November 2017. 

In them meantime, I'm not hanging around and I'm going to make my own enquiries about accessing the City Council's archives with a view to inspecting important council-wide and departmental reports, as well as 'minutes' from the the Corporate Management Team.

Now all of these documents should be freely available to public view and should not be restricted in any way; if any vital papers are missing that will tell its own story and the City Council's ability to defend the cockamamy WPBR/EDC pay scheme will fall apart.

After making some initial enquiries about how best to conduct this search, I will be looking for some volunteers to help out and get to the bottom of things - which is where this FoI hunt differs from others I have made in the past with Glasgow and other councils. 

As I've said on the blog site lots of times - 'Many Hands Make Light Work' so if you think you can help, drop me a note at: markirvine@compuserve.com 

Glasgow council librarians and committee clerks are especially welcome to get in touch, in complete confidence of course.

Annemarie O'Donnell

Chief Executive

Glasgow City Council

By email to - annemarie.odonnell@ced.glasgow.gov.uk

Dear Ms O'Donnell

FOISA Request

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

1. Please provide me with the minutes of Glasgow City Council's Corporate Management Team (CMT) for the period between December 2006 and December 2016. 
2. I suspect these minutes may well be available online, as they are routinely in other Scottish councils, in which case I would be happy for Glasgow City Council to provide me with an appropriate internet link/s so that I can peruse the relevant documents for myself.
3. If there are any issues about inspecting the minutes online, please explain how I can access and peruse 'hard copies' of these documents from within the City Council's archives.

In any event, I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail at: 

markirvine@compuserve.com

Kind regards

Mark Irvine