Glasgow - One Year On!
I know it feels like a long time ago, but this time last year A4ES, GMB and Unison still had a huge fight on their hands to persuade Glasgow City Council that its WPBR pay scheme 'sucked' - big time.
In reality, it took many more weeks and months of hard campaigning (and the threat of strike action by the unions) before the City Council finally agreed that the WPBR had to be replaced - and that the WPBR was a 'dead parrot'.
In reality, it took many more weeks and months of hard campaigning (and the threat of strike action by the unions) before the City Council finally agreed that the WPBR had to be replaced - and that the WPBR was a 'dead parrot'.
Why Glasgow's WPBR Sucks 8 (28/02/18)
Here is the stark and shocking reality of how the 'rules' of the WPBR have been designed by Glasgow City Council to disadvantage female dominated jobs while favouring traditional male jobs.
The most notorious example is the completely invented '37 hour rule' and the accompanying overtime working practices which treat women workers as second class citizens.
- 98% of male dominated jobs benefit from the 37 hour rule and O/T practices
- 2% of female dominated jobs benefit from the 37 hour rule and O/T practices
- No other work related benefit operates in this way - people don't have to work 37 hours to qualify for holiday pay, sick pay, maternity leave, paternity leave etc.
- Put simply the 'rule' is a blatant example of the gender discrimination on which the whole WPBR is based.
Many Home Carers, for example, work more than 37 hours every week, but they are issued with separate contracts for working these additional hours so they don't qualify for premium, overtime rates.
If you ask me, the double standards built into the WPBR are completely indefensible which is why Glasgow's 'unfit for purpose' pay scheme has to go.
If I were running Glasgow City Council, I would extend an invitation Frans de Waal's to explain the psychology of equal pay to the council's senior officials
Watch this great excerpt from Ted Talks to see how low paid women workers in Glasgow have been treated for years, as second class citizens, paid in 'cucumbers' while their male colleagues were being rewarded with much juicer and tastier grapes.
But thanks to the long fight for equal pay and powerful backing from the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, the tables have turned.
Glasgow's lowest paid, predominantly female workers now have the confidence to tell City Council bosses to stick their cucumbers where the sun don't shine!
Watch this great excerpt from Ted Talks to see how low paid women workers in Glasgow have been treated for years, as second class citizens, paid in 'cucumbers' while their male colleagues were being rewarded with much juicer and tastier grapes.
But thanks to the long fight for equal pay and powerful backing from the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, the tables have turned.
Glasgow's lowest paid, predominantly female workers now have the confidence to tell City Council bosses to stick their cucumbers where the sun don't shine!
