Questions and Answers

I missed all the excitement on Facebook yesterday about the Council's settlement offers, the JES and 'Why aren't we getting our Equal Pay as of yesterday?'.

Now the reason for this is that I had a very busy day and other important things to do, but if I had the chance I would have posted something like:

• Lots of these questions have been explained previously on my blog site. For example, why the new JES is taking so long to introduce - until 2021 possibly
• I don't have enough hours in the day to write a new answer every time someone can't be bothered to keep up with what's already been explained on my blog - or elsewhere for that matter
• Moaning or complaining doesn't help - not least because we're all doing our level best to get everything done as quickly as possible
• More advice about the settlement process is being prepared all the time, as I write in fact  

So 'lighten up' Facebook users and if you've got a point to make, try and be positive rather than negative, as this always helps.

More to follow soon.  

  

Questions and Answers (14/02/19)

Karl and his team in the A4ES office continue to receive lots of telephone enquiries from people who ask:

"How far does my equal pay claim go back?"

Now I explained this in some detail in a previous post which I am publishing again below because responding to these phone queries takes up lots of valuable time, especially when Karl and his team have other important things to be getting on with.

So unless claimants have a very urgent question or issue, please don't ring the A4ES office - you can check your own client information online at: www.a4es.co.uk - the important thing is to ensure is that your personal and contact details are up to date.

But just remember that no one's equal pay can go back in time beyond 01 January 2007 - no one's claim can jump back more than 5 years - and the clock only starts ticking only once a claim has actually been registered.

  

Questions and Answers (31/01/19)

I said I would provide a more detailed explanation on this business of calculating the length of an equal pay claim.

1) The settlement period starts from January 2007 because this is the year when the WPBR was originally introduced - so no one can go back beyond January 2007.

2) The end date of the settlement period has still to be agreed with Glasgow City Council, but this will be somewhere between 31 March 2017 to 31 March 2018.

3) Claims already registered in January 2007 continued to 'add on' time going forward until the agreed settlement date,  so long as the claimants remained employed with Glasgow City Council.

4) If a claimant left the Council's before the agreed settlement date, their claim goes up to the last day of their employment with GCC.

5) If a claim was registered after January 2007, the claim can jump back in time for a maximum of 5 years - assuming the claimant had 5 years service at the time.

6) For example, a claim registered in January 2012 would jump back to January 2007 - and would also start to 'add on' time going forward from January 2012 up to the agreed settlement date.

7) Any claims registered later than January 2012 cannot go all the way back to the beginning because the '5 year rule' is laid down by Scots law and applies to all Glasgow equal pay cases. 

8) The period beyond the settlement date has still to be resolved in future discussions with Glasgow City Council since the WPBR is still in operation in 2019 and will not be replaced for some time, possibly in 2021.

9) Let's assume the WPBR is replaced on 31 March 2021 and that the current settlement date goes up to 31 March 2018 - this leaves a 3 year 'gap' period period which is not covered by the current settlement agreement and may result in GCC employees pursuing additional equal pay claims in 2021.

I hope this makes sense, but I'm happy to give it another crack if anything is less than clear.

The key points are that the equal pay 'clock' only starts ticking once a claim has actually been registered and the maximum period of any claim is 12 years - assuming a settlement date of 31 March 2018.