Glasgow MSPs and MPs

A reader from Glasgow commented on yesterday's post about the big decision facing the City Council over a potential appeal to the UK Supreme Court.

Let me get this.The SNP said they would have this dealt with quickly, now we have the SNP led Glasgow City Council seeking leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.

This is the independence screaming Scottish government now using the UK laws to get out of paying their employees the money they are due because the Scottish supreme courts laws aren't good enough.

Double standards me thinks.

The magic roundabout is about to start.

ALL ABOARD!

L

Now the reader makes a fair point if you ask me, because it would look extremely strange politically if the SNP-led City Council were to ask a UK court to overturn the unanimous decision of Scotland's highest civil court.

Especially when it doesn't take a legal genius to understand that Glasgow's discredited WPBR pay scheme set out to favour traditional male jobs at the expense of lower paid female dominated jobs done by carers, cooks, catering staff, cleaners, clerical workers, classroom assistants and so on.

And it would look even more strange if Glasgow's eight MSPs (all SNP of course) were not standing up and speaking out loudly and clearly in support of their local constituents.

Glasgow - Equal Pay Update (12/12/17)

Equal pay settlement discussions with Glasgow City Council seem to be picking up speed after a slow and unpromising start.

See the "Breaking News' post below and the update from Stefan Cross QC.

Now it's early days yet and no agreement has been reached on any of the big issues, but the 'mood music' appears to have changed which is good news if you ask me, so long as the claimants start to see some real results in the New Year.

In my view, the biggest issue of all is the GCC's application to appeal the Court of Session's WPBR decision to the UK Supreme Court because this has the potential to delay things and kick the settlement process into the long grass.

Now I can't see this happening because the Leader of the Council, Susan Aitken, has repeatedly said that the SNP-led administration has no intention of pursuing the case to the UK Supreme Court - even though GCC is asking the Court of Session for 'leave to appeal'.

A major reason for GCC not pursuing an appeal to UK Supreme Court in London is that the WPBR is now completely discredited, after being roundly roundly criticised by three senior judges in the Court of Session who unanimously decided that Glasgow's pay arrangements are 'unfit for purpose'.

Another important reason is that the SNP would surely pay a very heavy price in terms of its political reputation, if the party were to run off down to London to try and overturn a decision from Scotland's highest civil court - when all eight of Glasgow's Holyrood MSPs are SNP supporters including the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

How would that make the SNP and the Scottish Government look in the eyes of Glasgow council workers and voters, given the justice of the claimants' case and its powerful backing from the Court of Session?

A third big reason for Glasgow to ditch the UK Supreme Court is the cost to the City Council because the ultimate bill will increase hugely, if the council 'bets the house' again and loses a further appeal - on the advice of officials and advisers who have been defending the indefensible over equal pay for the past 10 years.

So it's all to play for as they say and next week sees another important diary date with Glasgow 'leave to appeal' petition being heard by another panel of judges in the Court of Session.

Glasgow - Court of Session (03/12/17)

A number of readers have asked what is happening with the Court of Session and Glasgow's application seeking leave to appeal the landmark decision about the City Council's WPBR pay scheme to the UK Supreme Court

Well the good news is that a date has now been set to hear Glasgow's application and the details are as follows:

Date: Thursday 21 December 2017

Time: 10am onwards

Venue: Court of Session, Parliament Square, Edinburgh EH1 1RQ.

Now I intend to go along on the 21st December and I don't think the hearing should be terribly long, because the judges have all the written submissions in advance and the differences of opinion are very clear.

The hearing is open to the public, so if any A4ES claimants from Glasgow would like to join in, then drop me a note and maybe we can meet up on the day.

As I've explained on the blog site previously, the GMB union is not involved in this hearing because it has never been part of the fight against the WPBR - only A4ES clients and Unison members will be represented.

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Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser