Dying for Equal Pay (10/02/18)

I was very sorry to hear via Facebook that another equal pay claimant in Glasgow has passed away while waiting for her case to be settled.

I'm so sorry and sad to have lost yet another one of our friends and college that's gained her angel wings waiting on her equal pay how many more before we get settled... R.I.P Isobel Pickles thinking of all the family  xx

What I find surprising is the lack of outrage from Glasgow's politicians - councillors, MSPs and MPs - are well aware that this long-running dispute has been allowed to drag on for the past ten years, but that some people pay a very high price indeed.

 

Dying for Equal Pay(12/11/17)

I sent yesterday's blog post about "Dying for Equal Pay' to all Glasgow MSPs and MPs along with the following Twitter message:

"No wonder Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has criticised local councils for dragging their feet over equal pay"

I hope equal pay claimants in Glasgow are doing their part as well because there's a way to go yet before a proper settlement process gets underway.

As things stand Glasgow City Council has still to explain how traditional male jobs were 'looked after' under the WPBR pay scheme, but this information is crucial to a settlement of the outstanding equal pay claims.

So why is it taking so long and how the hell can the Council justify taking all these months to explain their own pay arrangements? 

  

Dying for Equal Pay (10/11/17)

Sadly, another Glasgow equal pay claimant has died while waiting on the long-running dispute with the City Council to be settled.

Now I don't know the deceased person and she may not even be an A4ES client, though that's beside the point.

Because when something similar was happening to Scotland's miners several years ago, MSPs and MPs were queuing up to demand that the settlement process of their health-related claims be 'speeded up' or else. 

Yet the fight for equal pay in Glasgow is 10 years old and counting with little sign of urgency among the political classes or the council's senior officials.

So where are the raised voices of Glasgow's MSPs and MPs on behalf of their local constituents?

Here's an exchange of emails with a friend and work colleague of the claimant concerned - sincere condolences to the family

This whole process is a joke. One of my colleagues who would have beed paid out died this week. So all her years of hard work and fighting was for nothing as she is gone and this atrocious mess continues.

K


Hi K

I am very sorry to hear that and know of lots of similar sad cases that have occurred down the years both in Glasgow and elsewhere. Have you written to your local MSP and MP to highlight what's going on because these ridiculous delays in moving things forward do have a very real human cost? 

Mark Irvine

  

Dying for Equal Pay (08/06/17)

I've written about people 'dying for equal pay' many times on the blog site, but this seems like a good time to remind everyone that this foot-dragging behaviour on the part of councils has a very real effect.

Especially when you think that many of the outstanding equal pay claims in Glasgow City Council are more that 10 years old - and date back to 2006/07

  

Dying for Equal Pay (17/11/16)

I wrote a post the other day which mentioned that a client in Glasgow had passed away while waiting for their equal pay claim to be settled.

Now this is a regular occurrence, not least because many council employers have been dragging their feet in an effort to wear A4ES down, perhaps in the hope that we would run out of the time or resources required to see this fight through to the end.

But they've been proved wrong, of course, time and again but if you ask me, it's still a disgrace that people have had to fight so long also hard just to enforce their rights to equal pay under the law.

Especially when the 'landmark' 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement in Scotland was meant to achieve this no less than 17 years ago.