Glasgow - New Equal Pay Claims

I am still receiving emails and Facebook messages asking about 'new' equal pay claims in Glasgow which were registered after the cut-off date of 31 January 2019.

So here's a post from the blog site archive which explains the position and how these claims will be dealt with in the months ahead, as Glasgow City Council replaces its 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme. 

  

Glasgow - New Equal Pay Claims (17/09/19)

I get lots of enquiries from A4ES clients who keep asking me the same question which goes something like this:

"I registered a new equal pay claim against Glasgow City Council earlier this year - can you tell me when I'll be receiving a settlement offer?"

The answer to this question is very simple and it has already been explained, in writing, to every new A4ES claimant in the following terms: 

"As you may have heard the Council has agreed to settle all claims which were presented to the Tribunal by the 31st January 2019. Due to your claim only being received after this date we are unable to include you in this round of settlements. The earliest date which any settlement can be made is following the completion of the Councils New Job Evaluation, which we expect to be in done sometime in 2021."

Now this paragraph is an extract from the letter sent to all new A4ES clients who registered their equal pay claims after the cut-off date of 31st January 2019.

So if any claims registered from 1 February 2019 onwards will not receive a settlement offer in this current round of settlements.

The next round of settlement negotiations in Glasgow will begin as the Council prepares to replace its 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme with completely new, non-discriminatory pay arrangements - which is scheduled to take place in April 2021. 

Below is a copy of the acknowledgement letter which is sent to all new A4ES clients and explains the steps that are now underway to process all of the outstanding Glasgow claims. 

New claims can still be registered because the Council's discriminatory WPBR pay arrangements will remain in place until at least April 2021 when the Council has agreed to introduce a new Job Evaluation Scheme (JES).

I hope this clarifies the position for everyone and avoids the need to answer the same question over and over again.

     

Dear A4ES Client

Acknowledgment of your New Claim v Glasgow City Council.

I write further to your application for an Equal pay claim against Glasgow City Council. We can confirm that your application has been received. 

As you may have heard the Council has agreed to settle all claims which were presented to the Tribunal by the 31^st January 2019. Due to your claim only being received after this date we are unable to include you in this round of settlements. The earliest date which any settlement can be made is following the completion of the Council's New Job Evaluation, which we expect to be in done sometime in 2021. 

As part of the settlement agreement for the current clients, we agreed that we would not submit any new claims to the employment Tribunal until July 2019. Usually we would arrange to have your claim submitted as soon possible after accepting your claim. However this agreement prevents us from doing this until July 2019. This means that any future settlement which you may be due will only cover the maximum period from July 2014 up until the Job evaluation is completed.

In July 2019 we will then begin the following steps.

Step 1

In July 2019 A4ES will lodge an application for Early Conciliation to ACAS.  It is a requirement that Acas are notified of our intention to lodge an Employment Tribunal claim to allow your employer the opportunity to resolve this dispute without the need to go to court. Although we believe it is very unlikely that this dispute will be resolved in this manner, we still have to give GCC the chance to do so because this can affect remedies awarded by the tribunal, if either party declines this opportunity to use early conciliation a process which can take up to 6 weeks to complete.

Step 2

Once it has been decided that your complaint is not going to be resolved through the early conciliation process we will then need to submit your claim to the Employment Tribunal.

We will provide any updates regarding the progress of your claim to either your email address provided or by placing this on our website www.a4es.co.uk and Facebook page action4equalityscotlandltd Or my work Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/stefan.cross.714 if you send me a  “friend request” it’s the easiest way to keep up to date. 

Please don’t forget to like our page on Facebook.

You can also know download our application on both Apple Store on Apple devices and Play Store on Android Devices by search our app called A4ES client console. Once downloaded you will be required to enter your national insurance number and password which is detailed below. Please make sure to use the same upper and lowercase letters and make sure you do not add any spaces in either your National Insurance number or password. This app allows you check your details of your claim and to make sure all your contact information is up to date. 

Ni Number: Ninumber

Password: password

Please note that it is best once logged in to change your password to something you are more familiar with by going to the settings page within the applications.

This is the email address we have for you email. 

If the above email address is correct there is no need to contact us. However if it is incorrect or we have no email address provided please make sure you update us with the correct email address by sending an email to enquiries@action4equality.co.uk. If you do not have an email address you can always check our website for the most up to date information.

WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING NEW CLAIMS

If you know of anyone that has not yet made a claim they can still make a claim by using one of the following methods. 

• visiting our website at www.a4es.co.uk and selecting 'Join A4ES' 
• sending an email to enquiries@action4equality.co.uk.
• Calling us on 0131 659 9958.

Your Sincerely

 Stefan Cross (Hon) QC