Glasgow's MSPs and MPs

Not surprisingly, there's been lots of interest in yesterday's post about settlement negotiations getting underway with Glasgow City Council, at long last.

"About time!", "Well done!", "Good luckI" - are among the many comments I have received in the past few days, but a word of caution is required as well because this was just a brief two hour meeting which did not tackle any of the big, outstanding issues.

So while the political leadership of the City Council has reaffirmed its commitment to 'fix' Glasgow's equal pay problems and ensure that the claimants 'get what they are due' the process is still being driven by the council's senior officials and advisers.

The point being that many of these senior officials and advisers are responsible for getting the City Council into this mess in the first place and only a short time ago they were trying everything they could to justify Glasgow's discredited WPBR pay scheme which, if you ask me, is the root of the problem.

Local politicians seem to be doing their best to 'rise above' the settlement process, as if senior officials can relied upon to come up with a quick fix, while Glasgow's MSPs, MPs and elected councillors try not to get too involved.

I've heard reports of local politicians claiming that they can't comment on the ongoing Glasgow dispute or offer any support because equal pay is not their area of expertise or responsibility.

Now this is disingenuous, to put it mildly.

Because it doesn't take a job evaluation (JE) expert to say that Glasgow's WPBR pay scheme is full of arbitrary, completely invented 'rules' which are designed to favour traditional male jobs - while discriminating against the jobs done by carers, cooks, cleaners, catering workers, clerical staff, classroom assistants and so on.

For example, as explained in the post below, the WPBR (NSWP) rewards employees who have a contract to work 37 hours a week or more - but everyone who is contracted to less than 37 hours every week (i.e. most women workers) gets a fat, big NOTHING for their efforts.

In other words it doesn't require a rocket scientist or a JE specialist to agree that the WPBR is blatantly discriminatory because it's as plain as the nose on your face, to anyone who is prepared to listen to the evidence and come to a reasoned judgment.

Which explains, of course, why three senior judges in the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, decided unanimously that Glasgow City Council's WPBR pay scheme is 'unfit for purpose'.

So why would Glasgow's politicians have any difficulty in coming off the fence and stating where they stand on an issue of such importance to their local constituents who have been cheated of their rights to 'equal pay for work of equal value' for the past 10 years.

I have been keeping MSPs and MPs up to date on developments in Glasgow by circulating regular posts from the blog site and I've also offered to provide any further information they require.

Let's see what next Monday's 'second' meeting brings - hopefully an intent on both sides to get down to business and an acceptance from council officials that trying to justify the WPBR is akin to 'defending the indefensible'.

Glasgow - Breaking News (04/12/17)

The news from Glasgow is that today's meeting with the City Council actually went ahead and made some progress towards agreeing a credible process to resolve the long running equal pay dispute.

Now I think it's fair to say that not much was expected of this first meeting with the Council Leader and its senior officials, but proposals put forward jointly by A4ES and Unison were discussed and will be considered in more detail at the next meeting scheduled for Monday 11th December 2017.

In my view, the key issue facing the City Council is committing itself wholeheartedly to a settlement process which accepts that Glasgow's in-house WPBR pay scheme is an insult to the principle of 'equal pay for work of equal value'.

In which case the WPBR needs to be scrapped and replaced in a way that compensates low paid workers for being ruthlessly cheated out of their right to equal pay for the past 10 years - followed by the introduction of new pay arrangements which command the support of the council's largely female workforce.

I hope that next week's meeting starts getting down to 'brass tacks' which is not rocket science and simply means:

agreeing terms of reference for the negotiators
agreeing a timetable to complete the negotiations
addressing the issues in a sensible order of priority
placing a value on all the outstanding equal pay claims
identifying a credible replacement for Glasgow's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme

Let's hope that this begins to happen soon and that the City Council gives up on the barmy proposal to raise a further appeal with the UK Supreme Court.

City Council's officers are making a very big mistake if they think that an appeal to the UK Supreme Court can get Glasgow out of a huge hole dug by previous administrations who brought in a duplicitous and discriminatory WPBR pay scheme which cheated the council's largely female workforce out of its right to equal pay for over 10 years.

Glasgow - Breaking News (03/12/17)

Stefan Cross QC published a post on Facebook the other day in which he poked fun at Glasgow City Council for trying to impose a ludicrous news 'blackout' over the long awaited settlement discussions on equal pay which get underway tomorrow, as everyone knows, including the dogs on the street.

Here's what Stefan had to say about this 'Secret Squirrel' nonsense:

KEEP IT SECRET

Well folks we have our first meeting with the leader and council officials on Monday

Unfortunately the council have demanded we accept a string of totally unacceptable pre conditions at the last minute.

These include keeping everything secret including the fact that we are even having meetings.

This is just silly

Clearly we can’t and won’t give a blow by blow account of the meetings but total secrecy is just a non starter.

Oh dear looks like our first row.

Hopefully they’ll see sense

Watch this space

Stefan Cross

Now the real issue here is whether or not Glasgow is 100% committed to a negotiated settlement of all the outstanding equal pay claims.

The new political leadership of the City Council has consistently said 'Yes, we are' and Susan Aitken now has the backing of Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who stated recently:

"It may take us a bit of time to fix Labour’s mess, but I make this promise today.

Fix it we will.

The injustice suffered by low paid women in this city will be put right.

Equal pay for equal work, denied for too long, will be delivered by the SNP."

In which case why is GCC pressing ahead with a hearing at the Court of Session on 21st December 2017 in which Glasgow is seeking 'leave to appeal' the decision that the City Council's WPBR pay arrangements are unfit for purpose.

Surely it makes no political or legal sense for SNP led Glasgow City Council to be seeking to overturn a unanimous and well reasoned decision from three senior judges at the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court?

In any event, the real test is whether Glasgow acknowledges the scale of the problem, and agrees that Glasgow's pay arrangements need to be overhauled radically.

In my view that can only be done if Glasgow commits itself wholeheartedly to a settlement process which has a clear timescale for bringing this damaging dispute to a long overdue end.

Not least because previous council administrations have spent years 'defending the indefensible' when it comes to the City Council's ill-conceived, discriminatory and unlawful pay arrangements.

First Minister and Equal Pay (10/10/17)

Well Nicola Sturgeon certainly delivered the goods in her leader's speech to the SNP conference earlier today.

Here's what the MSP for Glasgow Southside had to say although let me add that the First Minister's words were also delivered with real passion and conviction.

"For decades, Glasgow has been run by Labour.

In May, that came to an end.

The cronies and time-servers are out.

Fresh ideas, Susan Aitken and the SNP are in.

The difference is already clear.Under Labour, a bitter school janitor dispute rumbled on for months.

Within weeks, it was resolved by the SNP.

For years, under Labour, women were denied the equal pay they are entitled to.

Conference

It may take us a bit of time to fix Labour’s mess, but I make this promise today.

Fix it we will.

The injustice suffered by low paid women in this city will be put right.

Equal pay for equal work, denied for too long, will be delivered by the SNP."

Now it's been a long hard fight to get where we are today and, at times, it certainly did feel as if the bosses, bullies and bureaucrats would get their way.

So I won't be mothballing the A4ES campaign or standing down my blog site anytime soon because the job's not done until it's done - which means a settlement of all the outstanding equal pay claims.

Nonetheless, the First Minister's words are bold and unequivocal and for that Nicola Sturgeon, Susan Aitken and the SNP all deserve great credit.

The task now is to get down to serious negotiations on how to best deliver equal pay for work of equal value in Glasgow which was, of course, the original intention of the landmark Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement in 1999.

For this to happen City Council officials need to come clean about the WPBR pay scheme and how it has 'looked after' the interests of traditional male jobs over the past 10 years.

And if there are any 'cronies or time-servers' who are tempted to frustrate this process, my advice is to get out of the way while you still can - because the winds of change seem to be blowing through the corridors of Glasgow City Council at long last.

Glasgow and Equal Pay (10/10/17)

I happen to be near a TV this afternoon so I am going to listen to Nicola Sturgeon's speech to the SNP's 2017 annual conference which is being held in Glasgow - the First Minister's political backyard.

No doubt this will be a wide ranging speech, but I will be interested to hear if the First Minister mentions the fight for equal pay in Glasgow City Council which has been raging for the past 10 years.

I certainly hope the issue comes up because Glasgow is the First Minister's political backyard and if you ask me, the thousands of low paid women council workers who have been cheated and robbed of their rights for years deserve the active support of their local MSPs and MPs.

First Minister and Equal Pay (07/10/17)

I've had lots of feedback to my recent posts about the First Minister and equal pay - here are just a few examples.

"Tweet sent"

"I sent Nicola Sturgeon an email and a group of us are going to ask her for a meeting"

"I’ve already sent one to her last month and the reply I got was basically it’s up to individual councils how they deal with it!"

"I got one saying that too ... disgrace"

Now the point of the exercise is not to make impossible or unreasonable demands of the City Council or Nicola Sturgeon, either as a Glasgow MSP or as First Minister.

But the fact of the matter is that the City Council is still refusing to come clean and explain how the interests of the bonus earning male groups were 'looked after' under the WPBR pay scheme.

And if you ask me, that's a national disgrace especially as we're talking about Scotland's largest and best resourced council which has cheated and robbed low paid women workers of their rights to equal pay for years.

No one is asking the First Minister, the Scottish Government or Glasgow MSPs to take control of the City Council - all that's being asked is that local politicians raise their voices and speak out about this terrible secrecy and refusal to shine a light on Glasgow's furtive pay arrangements.

I am absolutely prepared to accept that the new SNP led City Council is genuine about its desire to reach a negotiated settlement of the outstanding equal pay claims, but the evidence suggests that this mindset is not exactly shared by senior officials.

Glasgow City Council, of course, is quite entitled to ask Audit Scotland for practical assistance and presumably the Scottish Government would have no problem in supporting such a move, especially as the council is having such difficulty in getting its finger out.

Individuals employees with equal pay claims going back 10 full years could ask that Audit Scotland (Scotland's public spending watchdog) gets directly involved, but this request would carry much more weight if it were supported by local councillors, MSPs, MPs, the First Minister and so on.

So sending a message to the First Minister seems perfectly reasonable and sensible in all the circumstances, all the more so if you agree that Glasgow's behaviour over the past 10 years is a national disgrace.

And if you ask me, it's high time Glasgow's MSPs rose up and really started getting behind their local constituents in this long-running fight for equal pay.

Messaging the First Minister (06/10/17)

The SNP's 83rd annual conference gets underway this weekend at the SEC Centre in Glasgow and will hear from Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, a local Glasgow MSP for the 'Southside' constituency.

Glasgow City Council (Scotland's largest local authority) has a largely female workforce who have been cheated and robbed their rights to equal pay for years which is a national disgrace, if you ask me.

The new SNP led administration has pledged to sort this mess out, but the Council's WPBR pay arrangements are still shrouded in secrecy despite being described as 'unfit for purpose' by the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.

So why not send a message to the First Minister, via email or Twitter, calling on Glasgow City Council to commit itself to openness and transparency over equal pay:

Please highlight the fight for equal pay at SNP 2017 and urge Glasgow City Council to 'come clean' over its WPBR pay scheme?

Readers can send a message to Nicola Sturgeon at the Twitter address below or via email

Twitter@NicolaSturgeon

Email
FirstMinister@gov.scot
Nicola.Sturgeon.msp@scottish.parliament.uk

As a Glasgow voter and council taxpayer I will be messaging the First Minister this weekend and I hope that lots of readers, and their families, will do so as well.

'People make Glasgow' after all and the more who get involved in this campaign the better.

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Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser