What the Papers Say!
Here's what The Herald and The Scotsman have to say on the fight for equal pay Glasgow City Council.
More to follow.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17365335.glasgow-city-council-confirms-500m-equal-pay-settlement/
Glasgow City Council confirms £500m equal-pay settlement
By Margaret Taylor @MagsTaylorHT - The Herald
Glasgow City Council close to signing £500m equal-pay settlement
GLASGOW City Council has agreed to pay £500 million to settle its long-running equal pay dispute, putting thousands of historically low-paid women in line for an average pay-out of £35,000.
The historic deal has been agreed in principal by council leader Susan Aitken and the trade unions and lawyers representing the affected women.
Ms Aitken said that while the deal will need to be signed off by the full council "in the coming weeks", she is "delighted that the council and claimants' representatives have agreed an offer".
READ MORE: Revealed: Glasgow council's plan to meet its £500m equal pay bill
“My commitment to resolving this issue has never wavered and I have never needed to be convinced of the case for equality," she said.
“I would like to thank each and every council officer who has been involved in this at times extremely challenging process, the claimants’ representatives who have steadfastly represented their members and clients throughout and the claimants themselves for their patience.
“After a decade of obstruction and inaction, in a relatively short space of time we have now reached agreement which delivers the pay justice these women long have fought for.
"I am proud to be able to recommend a settlement to right this historic injustice and I trust colleagues across the chambers will support this deal and the work we must undertake to address the future challenges it places before us.”
With the exception of a small group of male staff whose pay grade was used as the standard against which female workers’ salaries were compared, it is thought that everyone who made a claim is in line to receive a payment.
However, it will be several months before any money is paid out to claimants, with council officials having to apply the broad methodology used to calculate the final sum to each individual claim.
In total around 14,000 claims have been lodged with the council, the vast majority of which were filed on the claimants’ behalf by law firm Action4Equality Scotland. Trade unions Unison and the GMB are acting on behalf of several thousand claimants each while Unite, which joined the action last year, represents a few hundred.
READ MORE: Thousands of council workers march through Glasgow in equal pay strike
Once individual settlements have been calculated they will have to be agreed with the women’s representatives before offer letters are sent out. That process will take some time to complete, with no money expected to be paid out until the middle of this year at the earliest.
Stefan Cross of Action4Equality Scotland said that despite neither side getting everything it wanted from the deal and both sides making "serious concessions", the claimants' representatives would be recommending the offer be accepted because it is "a fair deal".
Glasgow City Council is now going to have to put plans in motion to release the funds required to make the settlement. It is thought that the council will transfer a number of revenue-generating sports and cultural properties into an arms-length business that will then mortgage them in order to raise the necessary cash.
The deal comes three months after the affected women staged a two-day walk-out in protest at the length of time it was taking to negotiate a settlement, with cleaners, carers and cooks downing tools across the city.
Their anger was largely directed at Ms Aitken - who took over as council leader when her party, the SNP, seized control of the local authority from Labour in 2017 – because she had promised to have a settlement agreed by the end of 2018.
She made that promise after the Labour Party had fought the women through the courts for years.
READ MORE: Equal pay battle to rumble on into New Year
Although that timetable was not ultimately met, in December both sides spoke of the “valuable progress” that had been made following the strike and agreed to delay final sign-off until the new year.
“Valuable progress has been made but the remaining issues are complicated and the agreement to adjourn until January was the right thing to do,” Unison organiser Peter Hunter said at the time.
Once the settlements have been made the council and the claimants' representatives will agree a new job evaluation structure so the existing pay scheme can be replaced. That process is likely to take two years to complete.
As that means anyone receiving an equal-pay settlement in the coming months would continue to be paid under the discredited system for some time afterwards, it is expected that a further settlement will be negotiated further down the line to cover the period between the initial payout being made and the new pay structure coming into force.
Glasgow City Council close to signing £500m equal-pay settlement
GLASGOW City Council has agreed to pay £500 million to settle its long-running equal pay dispute, putting thousands of historically low-paid women in line for an average pay-out of £35,000.
The historic deal has been agreed in principal by council leader Susan Aitken and the trade unions and lawyers representing the affected women.
Ms Aitken said that while the deal will need to be signed off by the full council "in the coming weeks", she is "delighted that the council and claimants' representatives have agreed an offer".
READ MORE: Revealed: Glasgow council's plan to meet its £500m equal pay bill
“My commitment to resolving this issue has never wavered and I have never needed to be convinced of the case for equality," she said.
“I would like to thank each and every council officer who has been involved in this at times extremely challenging process, the claimants’ representatives who have steadfastly represented their members and clients throughout and the claimants themselves for their patience.
“After a decade of obstruction and inaction, in a relatively short space of time we have now reached agreement which delivers the pay justice these women long have fought for.
"I am proud to be able to recommend a settlement to right this historic injustice and I trust colleagues across the chambers will support this deal and the work we must undertake to address the future challenges it places before us.”
With the exception of a small group of male staff whose pay grade was used as the standard against which female workers’ salaries were compared, it is thought that everyone who made a claim is in line to receive a payment.
However, it will be several months before any money is paid out to claimants, with council officials having to apply the broad methodology used to calculate the final sum to each individual claim.
In total around 14,000 claims have been lodged with the council, the vast majority of which were filed on the claimants’ behalf by law firm Action4Equality Scotland. Trade unions Unison and the GMB are acting on behalf of several thousand claimants each while Unite, which joined the action last year, represents a few hundred.
READ MORE: Thousands of council workers march through Glasgow in equal pay strike
Once individual settlements have been calculated they will have to be agreed with the women’s representatives before offer letters are sent out. That process will take some time to complete, with no money expected to be paid out until the middle of this year at the earliest.
Stefan Cross of Action4Equality Scotland said that despite neither side getting everything it wanted from the deal and both sides making "serious concessions", the claimants' representatives would be recommending the offer be accepted because it is "a fair deal".
Glasgow City Council is now going to have to put plans in motion to release the funds required to make the settlement. It is thought that the council will transfer a number of revenue-generating sports and cultural properties into an arms-length business that will then mortgage them in order to raise the necessary cash.
The deal comes three months after the affected women staged a two-day walk-out in protest at the length of time it was taking to negotiate a settlement, with cleaners, carers and cooks downing tools across the city.
Their anger was largely directed at Ms Aitken - who took over as council leader when her party, the SNP, seized control of the local authority from Labour in 2017 – because she had promised to have a settlement agreed by the end of 2018.
She made that promise after the Labour Party had fought the women through the courts for years.
READ MORE: Equal pay battle to rumble on into New Year
Although that timetable was not ultimately met, in December both sides spoke of the “valuable progress” that had been made following the strike and agreed to delay final sign-off until the new year.
“Valuable progress has been made but the remaining issues are complicated and the agreement to adjourn until January was the right thing to do,” Unison organiser Peter Hunter said at the time.
Once the settlements have been made the council and the claimants' representatives will agree a new job evaluation structure so the existing pay scheme can be replaced. That process is likely to take two years to complete.
As that means anyone receiving an equal-pay settlement in the coming months would continue to be paid under the discredited system for some time afterwards, it is expected that a further settlement will be negotiated further down the line to cover the period between the initial payout being made and the new pay structure coming into force.
Deal agreed in Glasgow’s long-running equal pay dispute Susan Aitken had pledged to settle the historic dispute when she became the first SNP leader of the council in 2016.
Picture: John Devlin PRESS ASSOCIATION REPORTER
An agreement in principle has been reached in a bid to bring an end to Glasgow’s long-running equal pay dispute.
Susan Aitken, the leader of Glasgow City Council, confirmed the authority has “agreed an offer” with the organisations representing the thousands of workers affected.
The council stressed, however, that the agreement is not the end of the process and a number of steps need to be taken before payments can be made.
Ms Aitken said: “After a decade of obstruction and inaction, in a relatively short space of time we have now reached agreement which delivers the pay justice these women long have fought for.”
She said she is “proud to be able to recommend a settlement to right this historic injustice”.
Ms Aitken had pledged to settle the historic dispute when she became the first SNP leader of the council in 2016.
She added: “It’s been a difficult journey but I have never once hesitated in my commitment to deliver pay justice in Glasgow.”
The agreement in principle comes after some 8,000 Glasgow council workers walked out on strike for 48 hours in October last year in a bid to settle the pay claim.
• READ MORE: Insight: How Glasgow is a city torn apart by the equal pay debacle
Around 12,500 workers, mostly women, were proceeding with claims against the council following a Court of Session ruling in 2017 that female workers had been discriminated against.
The council adopted the Workforce Pay and Benefit Review (WPBR), implementing its job evaluation-based pay and grading system in 2006 with the aim of ensuring men and women received equal pay for jobs of the same value.
However, some women claim they were paid £3 an hour less than men in similarly graded roles.
Council bosses said at the time of the October strikes that such action was unnecessary, and they hoped to reach a settlement in the following months.
Stefan Cross QC from Action4equality, which represented some of the claimants, said. “Since the strike there has been real and constructive negotiations.
“Neither side has got everything it wanted and both sides have made serious concessions so that we can both be satisfied that this is a fair deal.”
Before the payments can be made, the deal has to be approved by members of Glasgow City Council. The authority is also “completing the process” of raising the necessary funding to cover the cost of the payments.
Wendy Dunsmore, regional industrial officer for the Unite union, hailed it as a “day of celebration for the workers in Glasgow City Council who were unfairly treated and discriminated against”.
She said: “These workers have been financially disadvantaged for years. The deal addresses these historic wrongs. Unite members will be delighted that the many years of wait is almost at an end.”
GMB Scotland organiser Hazel Nolan said: “This is a significant moment and is recognition of the value of women in this city, brought about by the women themselves understanding their own value and fighting for it together.
“What is important now is that the claimants and their families can have confidence in this agreement and in the process of delivery in the coming weeks and months.”
