Glasgow - Strike Action Looms
The Glasgow City Council Unison branch is calling on members to support a strike ballot in support of the ongoing fight for equal pay.
The dispute is about the Glasgow City Council attempting to tear up an existing compensation agreement which led to a partial settlement of outstanding equal pay claims in 2019 - the council is also threatening to impose inferior settlement terms going forward.
Around 9,000 UNISON members in Glasgow affected by equal pay compensation arrangements will soon receive a formal strike ballot paper. Our sister trade unions are balloting their members too.
What is the dispute about?
Glasgow City Council has failed to resolve historic and ongoing pay inequality and UNISON members are still being paid under the old discriminatory pay scheme. The council has now projected that the new pay and grading scheme to address inequality in workers terms and conditions will not be in place until at least 2024. Meantime the council wants to rip-up the 2019 equal pay compensation deal for future payments and is also refusing to make further interim payments.
The deal in 2019 saw interim payments made to thousands of workers up to 31 March 2018. The council said that a new pay and grading scheme would be in place in 2021. This has not happened. It is unacceptable that workers are being expected to wait until at least 2024 – six years after their initial payment – for the next step in addressing ongoing gender pay discrimination in Glasgow. We need to respond.
In addition, the council is attempting to divide the workforce by excluding many jobs, covering thousands of workers, that were previously paid out. Future equal pay compensation payments are now under threat for thousands of workers including those in social care, early years nurseries and clerical / admin jobs. We need to respond.
Thousands of workers, overwhelmingly women, were paid out in 2019 because their pay was unequal - nothing has changed since then, it’s still unequal. The same jobs in the same unequal pay scheme. Yet the council is now refusing to pay up and trying to exclude many jobs. The council’s actions are a cynical ploy to divide trade unionists. Don’t be fooled.
What do we want?
The council should apply the 2019 arrangements to those claimants who have never received anything – the so-called “new claims”. The council should also use the 2019 arrangements to calculate a new round of interim payments for all eligible workers because of the delay in implementing the new pay and grading system. These are our demands in this dispute.
Members affected are being asked to support a programme of strike action. This will be determined by your elected UNISON branch commitee in consultation with members and our sister trade unions in due course. All members would strike together.
All UNISON members will have access to the branch strike hardship fund if strike action is required.
Your ballot paper will be sent to your home. Please post it back as soon as possible.
Vote YES to strike action.
DON’T DUMP THE DEAL…VOTE YES TO STRIKE ACTION!!!
Thousands of workers, overwhelmingly women, were paid out in 2019 because their pay was unequal - nothing has changed since then, it’s still unequal. The same jobs in the same unequal pay scheme. Yet the council is now refusing to pay up and trying to exclude many jobs. The council’s actions are a cynical ploy to divide trade unionists. Don’t be fooled.
What do we want?
The council should apply the 2019 arrangements to those claimants who have never received anything – the so-called “new claims”. The council should also use the 2019 arrangements to calculate a new round of interim payments for all eligible workers because of the delay in implementing the new pay and grading system. These are our demands in this dispute.
Members affected are being asked to support a programme of strike action. This will be determined by your elected UNISON branch commitee in consultation with members and our sister trade unions in due course. All members would strike together.
All UNISON members will have access to the branch strike hardship fund if strike action is required.
Your ballot paper will be sent to your home. Please post it back as soon as possible.
Vote YES to strike action.
DON’T DUMP THE DEAL…VOTE YES TO STRIKE ACTION!!!
