Breaking News - Glasgow 'Council Family' Update
Glasgow's top official, Annemarie O'Donnell, is fond of referring to the 'Council Family' and is always inviting family members to ask her questions about equal pay.
So here's one that an enterprising claimant put to Annemarie just the other day - a very fair question, if you ask me, about whether or not the Council's chief executive agrees (with senior elected councillors and the Court of Session) that Glasgow's WPBR pay scheme is 'unfit for purpose'.
Dear Annemarie
Thank you for your email dated 28 August 2018.
I note the points you have made which go lots of detail without answering directly the question I raised which was:
Do you as the Council's chief executive accept the judgement of the Court of Session that the WPBR is 'unfit for purpose' and that the scheme discriminates against the Council's largely female workforce?
I think that Home Carers and other staff are entitled to a straight answer to a straight question.
Yours sincerely
Frances S
I will be interested to read Annemarie's reply and like everyone else I hope this will result in a 'straight answer to a straight question'.
Who Speaks for Glasgow? (29/08/18)
A number of readers have been in touch to say they have received an identical answer from both Annemarie O'Donnell and Susan Aitken in response to enquiries about the Council's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme.
Now I believe that people have been asking broadly the same question along the following lines:
"Can you please confirm that Glasgow City Council accepts the judgment of the Court of Session that the WPBR is 'unfit for purpose' and that the scheme discriminates against the Council's largely female workforce?"
Here's an example of the answer that's come back in Annemarie O'Donnell's name, but I understand that an identical, or at least very similar, response is being sent out in Susan Aitken's name as well.
Dear XXXXX
Thank you for contacting me in relation to equal pay.
I want to start at the outset by saying that the City Government, and Cllr Susan Aitken as the Leader, remain 100 per cent committed to delivering justice for equal pay claimants who have been waiting for over a decade for this long-running issue to end.
We are currently in negotiations with claimants representatives and are seeking to have a settlement figure agreed with them by the end of 2018. No-one from either side has ever been under any illusion this process would be quick and easy. These negotiations have at times been difficult and the entrenchment of the competing positions which has been the case for over a decade cannot be undone overnight.
Nonetheless significant progress, backed by the democratic process of the council, has been made. This progress includes, ending the legal challenge, putting political oversight in place, holding fortnightly formal negotiating meetings, bringing Cordia - where most of the affected staff are employed - back into the Council and harmonising their terms and conditions, and mostly recently the decision taken to replace the council’s entire pay and grading structure.
All of the above have been asks of the claimant’s representatives and illustrate the continuing commitment that has been shown since the election to dealing with the long-standing work force issues which have underpinned this inequality.
Furthermore, the process of sourcing how the council will fund the final settlement is now underway.
The SNP group have always been clear that they don’t believe the council has been paying men and women equally for the work they do. We need to compensate women for years of underpaying them, and we need a new pay and grading system that rewards everyone fairly – that work is underway.
I know the claimants’ representatives are frustrated by the difficulties this process regularly throws up, and can understand this. But the City Government remain committed, and will continue to ensure the good faith which has facilitated the massive strides we have collectively made continues, and that this long-running and complex matter is resolved as quickly as possible to the year-long timetable all parties agreed to at the beginning of the year.
I hope this is useful in setting out our on-going commitment to settle equal pay.
Regards
Annemarie O'Donnell
Chief Executive Glasgow City Council
So the obvious and very important point to make is that despite all the warm words the Council's most senior official fails to answer the point - instead she ducks the question entirely which speaks volumes about what is really going on.
Because after 8 long months of unproductive settlement negotiations the Council has failed to 'negotiate' on the crucial issues, e.g the Pay Gap and Male Comparators, and continues to defend key aspects of the WPBR even though the scheme has been judged to be 'unfit for purpose' by the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.
Not only that, but the Council is now pursuing its own settlement proposals 'behind closed doors' and not in collaboration with the Claimants' representatives (A4ES, GMB and Unison) which is going back on what was agreed just a few short months ago.
Which explains why all the outstanding cases are heading back to the Employment Tribunals and also why the trade unions (GMB and Unison) are balloting members on strike action.
Who Speaks for Glasgow? (28/08/18)
Here's an interesting statement that just might have a significant impact on the fight for equal pay in Glasgow City Council.
"The whole issue arose out of the fact that the (WPBR) pay and grading scheme the Council has, has been found to discriminate against women, and we completely accept that it does."
Now these words were spoken by Cllr Mhairi Hunter whom I have met previously to discuss Glasgow's equal pay dispute and who has accompanied Council Leader, Susan Aitken, to an equal pay meeting or two at the Dixon Halls in Govanhill.
I think I'm correct in saying that Mhairi also has a role as office manager in Nicola Sturgeon's parliamentary office which is located in the First Minister's Glasgow Southside constituency.
So back to what Mhairi said on Sunday about the Council's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme via a local Glasgow TV programme, Full Scottish.
Mhairi's words are unequivocal and unambiguous- the City Council completely accepts that its WPBR pay scheme is discriminatory, a view which helpfully chimes with that of the Court of Session, the highest civil court in Scotland.
The only problem is that this is not the stance that has been adopted by the council's senior officials in 8 months of equal pay settlement 'negotiations' which have been taking place since the start of 2018.
Nor it it likely to the the position of the Council when all the outstanding equal pay cases go back to the Glasgow Employment Tribunal on 25 September, if 8 long months of unproductive settlement 'negotiations' are anything to go by.
So who has got it right - who is speaking plainly and who is speaking with a forked tongue?
What is Glasgow City Council's position when it comes to the WPBR - does the Council accept unequivocally that the scheme is discriminatory?
I think that claimants are entitled to ask this question of the Council Leader, Susan Aitken, and for the avoidance of doubt the Council's chief executive, Annemarie O'Donnell, as well.
If you'd like to email a question along the following lines to Susan Aitken and Annemarie O'Donnell, their respective email addresses are shown below.
Dear Susan/ Dear Annemarie
Glasgow's WPBR Pay Scheme
Can you please confirm that Glasgow City Council accepts the judgment of the Court of Session that the WPBR is 'unfit for purpose' and that the scheme discriminates against the Council's largely female workforce?"
Yours sincerely
A Glasgow Equal Pay Claimant
Susan Aitken's email address
Susan.Aitken@glasgow.gov.uk
Annemarie O'Donnell's email address:
annemarie.odonnell@ced.glasgow.gov.uk
By the way, Mhairi Hunter's full interview can be viewed via the link below to the Full Scottish and her comments on equal pay are about 6 minutes in.
