Glasgow - Equal Pay Update

I asked readers in Glasgow for help in finding out more about the different 'overtime working arrangements' arrangements across the City Council. 

And I'm pleased to say that someone has been in touch to confirm that her husband does indeed get paid either double time and a day in life for working a public holiday - or treble time if he chooses not to take claim the day off at another time.

Now I won't mention the group involved as this would give the game away rather too early, but exactly the same thing happened in South Lanarkshire Council, as people came forward to 'spill the beans' about local pay arrangements which blatantly favoured traditional male jobs. 

The men in these jobs began to understand that the fight for equal pay was always intended to be about increasing the pay of women workers - not dragging the pay of the men down.  

Once that penny dropped there was no turning back and the floodgates opened, so if you knew someone who might be able to help ask them to drop me a note, in confidence of course: markirvine@compuserve.com   

  

Glasgow - Equal Pay Update (04/01/18)

'Overtime Working' arrangements under the WPBR are becoming an increasingly big issue in the fight for equal pay with Glasgow City Council.

Now overtime working is very common in different parts of the council workforce, but some groups do appear to receive a much better deal than others.

Put more plainly, Glasgow's WPBR was deliberately designed to favour traditional male jobs over their lower paid female colleagues. 

For example, Home Carers receive only 'plain time' or 'single time' for every hour they work above the standard 35-hour working week, even if they do additional overtime hours on a very regular basis.

However, many male groups are contracted to work 37-hours a week, and for the 36th, 37th and all additional hours above 37 hours, these groups receive a premium rate (i.e. time and a half).

Two make matters worse this premium rate is not based solely on grade, but incorporates an NSWP payment of £1,000 a year (although only for those contracted to 37 hours a week) and these groups of workers also enjoy a further boost from their WCD payments as well.

As regular readers know, llmost everyone contracted to fewer than 37 hours a week in GCC are women workers and so the 'rules' of the WPBR must have been deliberately designed to benefit the predominantly male 37 hour a week jobs.

Why else would such a rule be invented - because employees don't have to work 37 hours a week to qualify for holiday or sick, par example?

So just taking the NSWP payment on its own, thousands of women's jobs have lost out to the tune of £1,000 every year for the past 10 years - and that's just one small part of Glasgow's cockamamy WPBR scheme.

To add insult to injury, male and female dominated jobs are being treated very differently when they work more than 35-hours a week - even to the extent of Home Carers being issued with separate contracts for their additional overtime hours which are much less favourable than those offers to the male dominated groups.

What we need is more information on how these traditional male jobs are being treated when it comes to overtime payments and if anyone can shine a light on the subject, drop me a note (in confidence of course) at: markirvine@compuserve.com

I'm sure there are readers in Glasgow who know or might even be related to council workers in these traditional male jobs: gardeners, refuse workers, gravediggers etc.

If so, ask them to get in touch because they may well be able to help women council workers get their just desserts in 2018.