Glasgow's WPBR 'Pay Monster'
I sent the following email to all Glasgow councillors earlier today and I hope that lots of equal pay claimants will follow this up by making contact with and seeking support from their own local councillors, MSPs and MPs.
The rate of progress in the ongoing settlement talks is painfully slow, but one thing the City Council can do is to say 'enough is enough' to the senior officials who have been defending the WPBR for years.
If you ask me, it's high time Glasgow's politicians stood up and spoke out because the council's senior officials have been getting away with 'murder' in equal pay terms ever since the WPBR was introduced back in 2007.
To all elected members of Glasgow City Council
Dear Councillor
Back in February I said that the next big step in the fight for equal pay was to ensure that Glasgow City Council faces up to the mess that senior officials created with their 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme which was introduced in 2007.
I drafted a motion about getting rid of the WPBR which is reproduced below, for easy reference, and has been shared with all Glasgow councillors, as well as the city's MSPs and MPs.
For my ow part I had a productive meeting with my local MSP (John Mason) and I am in the process of arranging a discussion with my MP (Alison Thewliss) and my local councillors - Robert Connelly, Jennifer Layden and Greg Hepburn (Cecilia O'Lone, my Labour councillor is on long term sick leave).
But I can only do so much on my own and this is where the thousands of claimants across Glasgow can make their voices heard - as they did in persuading the City Council not to appeal the Court of Session decision regarding the discredited 'unfit for purpose' WPBR to the UK Supreme Court.
Now agreeing to replace the WPBR is not a big thing to ask especially as the pay scheme has already been condemned by Scotland's highest civil court.
So why is it taking so long for the council to face up to a decision that is staring it own the face?
Scotland's Labour leader has agreed that Glasgow's equal pay claimants are due and apology and one of the things the council should be apologising for, if you ask me, is the cockamamy WPBR pay scheme with its discriminatory 'rules' and practices.
Because until the WPBR is replaced with new pay arrangements and a new job evaluation scheme which is transparent, consistent and fair - things can only get worse.
The next full meeting of Glasgow City Council is on Thursday 5 April 2018 and my aim is to get my motion, or something very similar, debated and voted upon at this council meeting which would effectively tell senior officials to 'get their finger out'.
All it takes is one single councillor (out of 85) to place a motion on the agenda calling for the council to replace the WPBR and Glasgow's equal pay claimants can play their part by lobbying local councillors along with the city's MSPs and MPs.
Such a decision is for the city's elected councillors to make, but MSPs and MPs are part and parcel of Glasgow's political network so they have an important role to play as well.
So get emailing, texting, Tweeting, Facebook messaging and visiting Glasgow's politicians in the days ahead because the target date is less than four weeks away - Thursday 5th April.
Let me know what responses people get (good, bad or indifferent) and I'll share this information on the blog site.
Glasgow's 'Unfit For Purpose' WPBR
I enclose a recent post from my blog site which contains a draft motion on Glasgow City Council's Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR) which was introduced over ten years ago back in 2007.
As you know, the WPBR pay scheme has since been roundly criticised and in August 2017 the scheme was judged to be 'unfit for purpose' by the unanimous decision of three senior judges in the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.
Senior council officials have been defending the WPBR 'tooth and nail' for more than a decade, despite its many obvious flaws such as the completely invented '37 hour rule' which blatantly discriminates against the council's women workers.
As such, there is an overwhelming case for the City Council to agree to replace the WPBR with a completely new scheme which commands the support of the workforce by operating on a transparent, consistent and fair basis.
Now the reason Glasgow is in such a mess over equal pay in 2018 is that senior officials were given far too much of a 'free hand' over the WPBR back in 2005/06/07 - insufficient safeguards were built into the design and implementation of the WPBR, otherwise things would look very different today.
I hope that elected councillors, individually or via a party group, will consider putting a motion along the lines the one I have drafted to the next full meeting of Glasgow City Council on 5 April 2018.
The fact is that lots of Glasgow councillors who hold office today have no idea what went on back in 2005/06/07 and, as such, there is a powerful argument for elected members taking a firm grasp of things by issuing clear instructions on the way forward in 2018.
If the WPBR is 'dead in the water', as some suggest, then the discredited pay scheme deserves to be laid to rest properly which means debating the issues and learning any lessons that need to be learned, particularly around the council's governance and accountability of senior officials.
For example, in a major report in September 2017 Scotland's public spending watchdog, Audit Scotland, highlighted that 'a decade long failure of leadership by central and local government' left taxpayers with a bill of more than £1 billion for equal pay claims.
I understand that some Glasgow councillors have responded to constituents' enquiries by saying that the issue is best left to the ongoing settlement negotiations with the claimants' representatives because a specific 'workstream' has been created to revisit the WPBR and the need for new pay arrangements.
The problem with this approach is that it allows for the possibility of a WPBR Mark 2 to emerge, nor does it address the issue of elected members acquiring a full understanding of how the council got into such a terrible mess in the first place.
New pay arrangements will still be part of the ongoing settlement talks, but it would send a much better message to Glasgow's equal pay claimants, if the WPBR were to be officially consigned to the dustbin of history - where it belongs.
Kind regards
Mark Irvine
Glasgow - Many Hands Make Light Work (09/03/18)
Back in February I said that the next big step in the fight for equal pay was to ensure that Glasgow City Council faces up to the mess that senior officials created with their 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme which was introduced in 2007.
I drafted a motion about getting rid of the WPBR which is reproduced below, for easy reference, and has been shared with all Glasgow councillors, as well as the city's MSPs and MPs.
"Glasgow City Council accepts with the unanimous judgment of the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, that its Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR) is 'unfit for purpose'.
"Council therefore instructs senior officials to replace the WPBR scheme, as a matter of urgency, to bring to an end discriminatory practices which treat its low paid women workers as second class citizens.
"Council further instructs senior officials to draw up plans for using the Gauge job evaluation scheme (JES) as a replacement for the WPBR.
"Council notes that the Gauge JES was originally recommended for use by the Scottish council employers via COSLA and the national trade unions (GMB, Unison and Unite), as part of the landmark 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement."
But I can only do so much on my own and this is where the thousands of claimants across Glasgow can make their voices heard - as they did in persuading the City Council not to appeal the Court of Session decision regarding the discredited 'unfit for purpose' WPBR to the UK Supreme Court.
Now agreeing to replace the WPBR is not a big thing to ask especially as the pay scheme has already been condemned by Scotland's highest civil court.
So why is it taking so long for the council to face up to a decision that is staring it own the face?
Scotland's Labour leader has agreed that Glasgow's equal pay claimants are due and apology and one of the things the council should be apologising for, if you ask me, is the cockamamy WPBR pay scheme with its discriminatory 'rules' and practices.
Because until the WPBR is replaced with new pay arrangements and a new job evaluation scheme which is transparent, consistent and fair - things can only get worse.
The next full meeting of Glasgow City Council is on Thursday 5 April 2018 and my aim is to get my motion, or something very similar, debated and voted upon at this council meeting which would effectively tell senior officials to 'get their finger out'.
All it takes is one single councillor (out of 85) to place a motion on the agenda calling for the council to replace the WPBR and Glasgow's equal pay claimants can play their part by lobbying local councillors along with the city's MSPs and MPs.
Such a decision is for the city's elected councillors to make, but MSPs and MPs are part and parcel of Glasgow's political network so they have an important role to play as well.
So get emailing, texting, Tweeting, Facebook messaging and visiting Glasgow's politicians in the days ahead because the target date is less than four weeks away - Thursday 5th April.
Let me know what responses people get (good, bad or indifferent) and I'll share this information on the blog site.
