Glasgow, Parrots and Job Evaluation
— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) March 7, 2019
Now here's a clever parrot which ought to fare well under any fair-minded job evaluation (JE) scheme because the brainy bird can clearly multi-task with ease, as well as operate a variety of complicated tools and machinery.
A word of caution, however, because as regular readers know this all depends on who does the 'scoring' and whether the 'rules' of a scheme are designed and applied in ways that benefit some people (or parrots) more than others.
I am pretty sure that if the bird was of the female persuasion, it would still have come a cropper under Glasgow's WPBR, although now that the WPBR is a 'dead parrot', so to speak, let's hope we're now in a whole different ball game.
Glasgow - Job Evaluation 2 ((08/03/19)
The first and most important point to make about job evaluation (JE) is that it's not 'rocket science' - JE is simply a way of assessing jobs and awarding jobs a value based on their responsibilities and skills.
Normally this is done by awarding jobs 'points' under a variety of agreed criteria or 'factors' which when added together give a total number of points and a place on the pay ladder or pay hierarchy.
For example, it's easy to understand why a hospital cleaner in the NHS is paid less than a brain surgeon without having to spell out how the big differences in training, skill levels and responsibility - all add up to decide the pay of two very different jobs.
In truth, it's a mixture of common sense and an impartial assessment of the different components of a job which determines what one job should be paid relative to another.
Yet that's exactly what Glasgow City Council says it did last time round with the WPBR which proved to be a load of old baloney since Scotland's highest civil court, the Court of Session, tore the WPBR up for 'arse paper' by declaring the scheme 'unfit for purpose' in August 2017.
So how do we avoid history repeating itself again? - watch this space and find out in the weeks ahead.
Glasgow - Job Evaluation 1 (06/03/19)
Here's the latest missive from Glasgow's chief executive, Annemarie O'Donnell, which explains what the Council is doing about scrapping its 'unfit for purpose' WPBR and replacing this with a new job evaluation scheme (JES) and new non-discriminatory pay arrangements.
As regular readers know, I've written lots about job evaluation on my blog site over the years, so I'll have plenty to say over the coming weeks and months as Glasgow gets down to the serious business of cleaning up its current WPBR pay arrangements which took a terrible mauling in the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.
So watch this space in he days ahead.
Glasgow and Job Evaluation - message from Annemarie O'Donnell
I want to keep you updated about the implementation of a new pay and grading scheme to replace Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR).
A new pay and grading scheme will make sure that everyone is paid fairly for the work they do. Everyone who works for the council family and whose pay and grading is determined by WPBR will be affected.
Job evaluation is the route to creating a fair grading and pay scheme. All jobs in the council have to be evaluated so that each job is fairly categorised in the first instance, and then a pay and grading system will be chosen to determine the pay for each job category. This will make sure that everyone is paid fairly for the jobs they do.
The job evaluation process the council has chosen is used by the majority of Scottish councils to assess jobs and complies with the Equal Pay Act.
On Thursday 7 March the City Administration Committee will be asked to consider the following two year implementation plan and timeline for the process of job evaluation. The pay and grading scheme will be developed over the same timeline but detailed in a separate report for committee to consider.
You can read the paper which will be considered by committee here but the outline of the process is set out below.
Proposed implementation plan - March 2019 to March 2021
March to April 2019
A dedicated team will be established to plan the job evaluation process and staff will be trained on how to carry out job evaluations. The team will be made up of job analysts from council staff, including HR teams and trade union nominations.
April to June 2019
The first step in job evaluation is to create a list of all jobs in the council to be evaluated (these are called discreet jobs). This will largely be a desk top exercise with input from service HR teams and senior management teams.
The list of jobs will then be benchmarked against other Scottish local authorities to make sure that our job categories are as detailed as they can be (these are called benchmark jobs). For example, we know that there are various types of home care jobs and benchmarking will make sure we capture as many categories as we can before we start evaluating jobs. This makes sure that jobs are evaluated in the correct way, as described below.
July 2019 to December 2020
Job evaluation will begin in July and be phased. The phasing in each area of the council has yet to be agreed. By the end of 2020 everyone will have received a job outcome describing the key tasks and skills required to do their job.
December 2020
Everyone will receive a statement of particulars detailing the grade and pay applicable to their job outcome.
March 2021
The new pay and grading scheme will be implemented along with any changes to payroll.
April 2021 to March 2022
You’ll then have the right to appeal your job outcome and grading.
Involving you in job evaluation
There are thousands of jobs in the council family and we don’t need to interview everyone individually. Jobs will mainly fall into two categories:
· Generic jobs - a number of jobholders who do broadly the same work, these groups can be covered by a single evaluation with a representative number of staff being interviewed for each category.
· Unique jobs – all other jobs are more likely to be evaluated with one-to-one interviews.
Interviews will be carried out by trained job analysts and information will be captured using an electronic questionnaire – the same questionnaire is used for everyone
By June we will be able to tell you more about the detailed plan to evaluate jobs in your area and how we will keep you updated about the implementation. In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions you can email me at Annemarie@glasgow.gov.uk
Annemarie O’Donnell
Chief Executive
Glasgow, Equal Pay and Dead Parrots (19/06/18)
The Evening Times reports that Glasgow City Council is finally accepting that its WPBR pay scheme really is a 'dead parrot'.
Now no mention is made of the fact that the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, condemned Glasgow's WPBR pay arrangements as 'unfit for purpose' way back in August 2017 - after a huge legal battle.
Nor is any mention made of the fact that the Council's discredited pay scheme was only put to the sword after a fantastic campaign by Glasgow's equal pay claimants - supported by A4ES, GMB and Unison.
A casual reader of the Evening Times could be forgiven for thinking that this decision was reached by 'enlightened' council officials and political leaders who woke up one day and decided - all by themselves - that the workforce suddenly deserved fair and transparent pay arrangements, untainted by the blatant sex discrimination associated with the WPBR.
So since the Council is not giving credit where credit is due, let me say a big THANK YOU to the thousands of equal ay claimants across Glasgow who made this day possible.
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/16299112.Council_pay_and_grading_system_to_be_scrapped/
Glasgow City Council pay and grading system to be scrapped
19 June 2018
By Stewart Paterson @PatersonHT - Evening Times
Equal Pay MFG
A SHAKE up of council staff pay and conditions is on the cards as the current system is to be scrapped.
Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said the workforce pay and benefits system, which is used to grade staff and determines wages and overtime rates is not fit for purpose.
The Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR)system is linked to the equal pay case which council officers are negotiating a settlement with unions and legal representatives of the claimants.
Writing in Today’s Evening Times Ms Aitken said that after talks with unions the council will be asked to give its approval to abandon the current WPBR and start work to create a whole new system.
It is likely the new system will be based on the Red Book which is an agreement used by most Scottish councils.
While it is hoped that negotiations will be concluded by the end of this year on the equal pay claims, the implementation of a new pay and grading structure will take much longer to implement.
Ms Aitken said: “Work on a fairer replacement will commence immediately after that and continue over the summer.
“Once identified, it would be two or three further years before it could be fully implemented. “We mustn’t repeat the mistakes of a decade ago and expose ourselves to fresh inequalities with another flawed system.
“This is what we are paying the price for. We need time to do this properly.”
Staff have been informed of the decision and work with the unions is expected to begin immediately.
The current grading system was introduced in 2007 and was supposed to deal with gender inequality in the light of equal pay claims but women workers argue it discriminates against them as female dominated jobs like home care are paid less than jobs which are dominated by men like cleansing.
It is expected that any changes in the new system will lead to greater value being placed on the work traditionally done by women workers.
Ms Aitken added: “As Council Leader I am committed to implementing a fully funded, fair and just pay and grading scheme which pays equally for equal work and which our employees have confidence in.”
The current pay and grading system was, at the time, agreed by the unions representing workers at the council.
Equal Pay MFG
A SHAKE up of council staff pay and conditions is on the cards as the current system is to be scrapped.
Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said the workforce pay and benefits system, which is used to grade staff and determines wages and overtime rates is not fit for purpose.
The Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR)system is linked to the equal pay case which council officers are negotiating a settlement with unions and legal representatives of the claimants.
Writing in Today’s Evening Times Ms Aitken said that after talks with unions the council will be asked to give its approval to abandon the current WPBR and start work to create a whole new system.
It is likely the new system will be based on the Red Book which is an agreement used by most Scottish councils.
While it is hoped that negotiations will be concluded by the end of this year on the equal pay claims, the implementation of a new pay and grading structure will take much longer to implement.
Ms Aitken said: “Work on a fairer replacement will commence immediately after that and continue over the summer.
“Once identified, it would be two or three further years before it could be fully implemented. “We mustn’t repeat the mistakes of a decade ago and expose ourselves to fresh inequalities with another flawed system.
“This is what we are paying the price for. We need time to do this properly.”
Staff have been informed of the decision and work with the unions is expected to begin immediately.
The current grading system was introduced in 2007 and was supposed to deal with gender inequality in the light of equal pay claims but women workers argue it discriminates against them as female dominated jobs like home care are paid less than jobs which are dominated by men like cleansing.
It is expected that any changes in the new system will lead to greater value being placed on the work traditionally done by women workers.
Ms Aitken added: “As Council Leader I am committed to implementing a fully funded, fair and just pay and grading scheme which pays equally for equal work and which our employees have confidence in.”
The current pay and grading system was, at the time, agreed by the unions representing workers at the council.
