BBC (Bollix Broadcasting Corporation)
I have been having a good old row with BBC Scotland long before last Monday's 'Disclosure' programme was broadcast.
As soon as I heard that my comments about the role played by Glasgow's senior officials were being edited out of the programme, I knew that the BBC were going to take their programme off in a bizarre, negative direction and let the senior GCC officials completely off the hook.
I sensed the programme makers were going to present a bogus story about 'winners' and 'losers' and said so in a series of emails to Sam Poling, who conducted the interviews, and Liam McDougall, the producer.
Sunday 13 October - 12.36 hours
Dear Liam/Sam
I'm just off the phone to Frances Stojilkovic - I do hope you are not planning to use shots from within Frances' home to illustrate what you regard as the 'winners' and 'losers' from Glasgow's equal pay settlement.
To my mind, that would be very underhand and unprofessional, as well as misleading - but let's see what tomorrow brings.
Kind regards
Now my suspicions proved to be correct because in the build up to the interview with Frances the BBC's voice over claimed that some Claimants received settlements of up to £200,000 - then cut straight to Frances in her family home.
Monday 14 September - 21.26 hours
Sam/Liam
I thought it was a very cheap shot and unprofessional of you to say that some people got up to £200,000 - and then cut the camera to Frances renovating her family home.
Now how did I know that’s what you had in mind?
Shame on you!
Mark
Now if you ask me, this was a complete set-up and one that was designed to present Frances in a negative light even though she has been tireless in her work supporting other and spreading the word about the need for people to protect their interests by registering an equal pay claim.
Here's a subsequent exchange of emails I had with Frances after the programme which, by the way, was wrong with its claim that 'some' Claimants receiving settlements worth £200,000 - not one single Claimant received that amount and why the BBC would make such a false claim is beyond me, unless it was just to cause mischief.
Hi Mark
After watching the program I thought it was very poor I felt betrayed by the BBC as I was led to believe this was about our historic win and victory.
In my eyes it was just an attack on Stefan and the unions not one word about Annmarie O'Donnell and her officials that robbed us for years, it made me look as if I got £200,000 I'm boasting about what I've bought with my money when there's others that are only getting 5 years.
We all got united in this fight and I now feel that it will cause a lot of division between our colleagues and I definitely don't think the BBC had our best interests at heart.
Here's my reply to Frances and both emails have been shared with Sam and Liam at BBC Scotland.
Hi Frances
Many thanks for your email.
I don't blame you, I have to say, as I think you were very shabbily treated by Sam and Liam in the editing of the BBC Scotland Disclosure programme which had a very negative narrative overall and, as you say, had not a word of criticism for the senior council officials in Glasgow City Council who introduced the 'unfit for purpose' WPBR and defended its discriminatory pay practices, tooth and nail, for well over 10 years.
As you say, the lead up to your own interview stated that 'some claimants had received up to £200,000' and the programme then immediately cut to your home which gave the impression that you were one of them - a cheap and nasty shot, in my opinion, as well as being completely untrue.
I will, however, pass your comments on to Sam and Liam at BBC Scotland although I would say that people who were in a position to help the cause of equal pay ended up shafting the women and letting the Council employer off the hook, yet again.
All the best
Mark
What's so disappointing about the Disclosure programme is that BBC journalists have been invisible throughout the fight for equal pay in Glasgow which has been raging for years, of course.
During this period the Disclosure programme and its journalists have had nothing of substance to say about the Council's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR, its blatantly discriminatory 37-hour rule, or the ongoing battle with GCC over freedom of information.
During this period the Disclosure programme and its journalists have had nothing of substance to say about the Council's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR, its blatantly discriminatory 37-hour rule, or the ongoing battle with GCC over freedom of information.
Yet they turn up in 2019 at the coo's tail with not a single word of criticism for the senior council officials who robbed and cheated the Claimants of their rights to equal pay for the past 14 years.
Shame on them!
Because if you ask me, journalists at BBC Scotland have not struck a serious blow in support of women's rights ever since Bob Wylie's investigative piece in August 2005 - announcing the arrival of A4ES and the start of the long fight for equal pay in Scotland's councils.
Shame on them!
Because if you ask me, journalists at BBC Scotland have not struck a serious blow in support of women's rights ever since Bob Wylie's investigative piece in August 2005 - announcing the arrival of A4ES and the start of the long fight for equal pay in Scotland's councils.
BBC (Bollix Broadcasting Corporation)
The evidence of 'wrongdoing' or 'negligence' has been pretty overwhelming, if you ask me, culminating in two devastating judgments from the Court of Session (Scotland's highest civil court), in August 2017 and again in December 2017, condemning Glasgow's WPBR pay scheme as 'unfit for purpose'.
Sadly, Scotland's establishment turned a 'deaf ear' - even after our country's public spending watchdog (the Accounts Commission) called the ongoing scandal over equal pay "a decade long failure of leadership by local and central government" - there was hardly a murmur from the great, the good and the not so good.
So pardon me if I laugh out loud at this ridiculous headline from BBC Scotland which calls for an 'inquiry' into the fees paid to A4ES over Glasgow's equal pay settlement.
Bring it on, I say - and broaden the remit to include the past behaviour and decisions of senior politicians and council officials.
I would love nothing better.
Because A4ES has absolutely nothing to hide and unlike Glasgow City Council we have been honest and upfront from the outset in the fight for equal pay in Scotland's councils.
Our clients know that without A4ES this long fight for would never have started, never mind end up in an historic victory at the Court of Session which led to a £500 million equal pay settlement with Scotland's largest council.
Glasgow City Council of course, had cheated and robbed its largely female workforce of their rights to equal pay for years until A4ES came along in 2005 and changed the course of history for the better.
So the BBC headline is absurd if you ask me, especially after its 'Disclosure' programme which had not a word to say about the role of senior officials in Glasgow City Council who have presided over a real equal pay scandal for many years.
The truth is that A4ES is largely responsible for holding councils like Glasgow to account and for some strange reason this seems to stick in some folks' craw.
Equal pay: Call for inquiry over 'troubling' Glasgow fees
A high-profile lawyer has called for an inquiry into Glasgow City Council's £548m equal pay settlement.
Carol Fox, a former solicitor, who was instrumental in litigating against councils across Scotland, made the call following a BBC Disclosure programme.
Ms Fox said she was "troubled" that women who were represented by unions had paid fees, which were believed to be about 6.9% of each settlement.
She said the women should be given an "immediate refund".
The Great Equal Pay Scandal documentary revealed that all 16,000 claimants who received a payout in the long-running equal pay dispute had legal fees deducted from their settlement.
This included women represented by unions which had told members they would not pay any costs.
A proportion of the legal fees went to private claims company called Action 4 Equality, run by lawyer Stefan Cross, which had represented the largest group of claimants.
Almost half of the settled claims were pursued by the three unions - Unison, GMB and Unite.
Ms Fox, who worked on the Glasgow equal pay claim until 2015, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland: "The union women were always told they would get 100% of any settlement, that they didn't pay fees.
"The Action 4 Equality women had a signed document where they knew that fees would be paid."
She said: "I really do think there needs to be a full inquiry, whether that's a parliamentary inquiry, an inquiry by the Law Society of Scotland, to look at what has happened here.
"I would call for the books of Action 4 Equality to be opened up to scrutiny."
Ms Fox worked as a trade union lawyer before joining Action 4 Equality in 2008 and leaving in 2015. She had no part in the final negotiations for the current Glasgow settlement.
The former lawyer said: "Those people who can't see the problem here, are very much part of the problem."
In Monday night's programme, Action 4 Equality's Stefan Cross said "all claimants" had paid 6.9% in fees.
"They're being paid by everybody," he said. "All claimants. It's a team effort."
The three unions - GMB, Unison and Unite - told the programme no union claimants had paid legal fees, and none was left at a detriment from the deal.
