Edinburgh and Equal Pay
Here's an excellent article on equal pay in tonight's Edinburgh Evening News - written by Gina Davidson - who quite rightly lays into the behaviour of Edinburgh councillors - past and present - city council officials and trade union leaders.
Good for Gina and the Evening News - the city council should try facing up to its responsibilities - instead of wasting public money on defending the indefensible.
Equal pay-up is long overdue
SCANDAL is a word over-used these days. Everything from Wayne Rooney's extra-marital expenses to Cheryl Cole's inability to choose which of her X-Factor proteges to give the boot should, apparently, leave us scandalised.
But there is a real scandal going on in Edinburgh right at the moment. One that no-one apart from those at the sharp end are talking about.
Unsurprisingly, it involves the city council and money. More surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the trams.
What it does involve are 340 people all fighting to get the money they are legally entitled to for doing their job. Money which their trade union has not, at least in the past, pushed to get for them. Money which the council is withholding illegally from its own staff. Money which would already be sitting in their bank accounts if they worked 50 miles along the M8.
These 340 are, of course, all women. And they have been discriminated against because of their gender ever since they took up a job with the local authority. Not that they knowingly signed up to be paid less than their male counterparts of course.
While the Equal Pay Act was introduced in Britain 40 years ago - which stated that men and women be paid equally for the same or similar work - it took until 1998 before local authorities faced up to the fact that they were paying their female staff far less than their male employees for equivalent work and that they would have to do something about it.
For years it was ignored that a home help would take home £12,000 a year compared to a bin man's £18,000pa, despite the former supposedly being on a higher pay grade. While they may not have been doing the same work, they were rated under a job evaluation scheme as being equivalent.
So in 1999 the single status agreement attempted to harmonise the pay and conditions of manual and clerical staff in local government. But still in Edinburgh the issue was ducked and in 2004 the council was given an extension to get it sorted.
Six years on and only now has the council finally agreed to compensate all those women (such as home helps and cleaners) who missed out on the bonuses that were fought for and won by trade unions for mainly male employees like refuse collectors. Apparently being a woman doesn't just mean you get paid less, because you don't need an extra incentive to complete your job, it means that you also have less need of representation by unions.
Anyway, for some this settlement has amounted to as much as an extra 50 per cent of their salary for every year worked.
Not that it's over. The on-going row about the three years of protected pay for bin men under the council's more recent revamp of its job grading system, still unfairly excludes these women.
So that's more discrimination, and the likelihood of more claims being made, although again it's not something you ever hear mentioned.
Even worse though is that the council is still fighting against paying compensation to those women who do "work of equal value". These women are mostly in clerical or administrative posts, and admittedly, establishing equal value can be difficult, but basically it boils down to demands of the job such as effort, skill and decision-making.
A nursing home sewing room assistant is judged to do work of equal value to a plumber, canteen workers and cleaners are of equal value to clerical workers.
Yet in its desire not to pay the women their legal dues, the council is spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' money fighting a losing battle in the courts.
It has even gone as far as trying to deny that it is their employer, as the women are based in different departments, in different buildings, across the city. It would be laughable if it wasn't such an insidious dereliction of duty to its staff.
Already the council has been told by the Honourable Lady Smith at an Employment Appeal Tribunal that it has to pay up. It is now appealing that decision to the Inner House of the Court of Session, which won't be heard until next June - racking up more legal costs for the Edinburgh public, and lining the pockets of illustrious QCs.
And yet were these women employed by Glasgow City Council all of this would have been settled by now. That, if nothing else, should shame those running the city.
Getting the money to pay compensation is not the issue. The council set aside £34m which has been spent just settling the manual workers' claims. For the rest it will now likely have to borrow money - for which the Scottish Government has given its permission.
But secondly, morally and legally, the council has to pay. It is not the fault of the women involved that they have been underpaid for so long. It is the fault of past and present councillors, officials and trade union leaders.
The council will lose its appeal. It is also in danger of losing what's left of its good name. And surely the Lib Dems and SNP councillors would love to take the moral high ground over their Labour counterparts?
It is time to stop squabbling with the women who have done nothing but work hard for their employer. It's time to pay up
Good for Gina and the Evening News - the city council should try facing up to its responsibilities - instead of wasting public money on defending the indefensible.
Equal pay-up is long overdue
SCANDAL is a word over-used these days. Everything from Wayne Rooney's extra-marital expenses to Cheryl Cole's inability to choose which of her X-Factor proteges to give the boot should, apparently, leave us scandalised.
But there is a real scandal going on in Edinburgh right at the moment. One that no-one apart from those at the sharp end are talking about.
Unsurprisingly, it involves the city council and money. More surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the trams.
What it does involve are 340 people all fighting to get the money they are legally entitled to for doing their job. Money which their trade union has not, at least in the past, pushed to get for them. Money which the council is withholding illegally from its own staff. Money which would already be sitting in their bank accounts if they worked 50 miles along the M8.
These 340 are, of course, all women. And they have been discriminated against because of their gender ever since they took up a job with the local authority. Not that they knowingly signed up to be paid less than their male counterparts of course.
While the Equal Pay Act was introduced in Britain 40 years ago - which stated that men and women be paid equally for the same or similar work - it took until 1998 before local authorities faced up to the fact that they were paying their female staff far less than their male employees for equivalent work and that they would have to do something about it.
For years it was ignored that a home help would take home £12,000 a year compared to a bin man's £18,000pa, despite the former supposedly being on a higher pay grade. While they may not have been doing the same work, they were rated under a job evaluation scheme as being equivalent.
So in 1999 the single status agreement attempted to harmonise the pay and conditions of manual and clerical staff in local government. But still in Edinburgh the issue was ducked and in 2004 the council was given an extension to get it sorted.
Six years on and only now has the council finally agreed to compensate all those women (such as home helps and cleaners) who missed out on the bonuses that were fought for and won by trade unions for mainly male employees like refuse collectors. Apparently being a woman doesn't just mean you get paid less, because you don't need an extra incentive to complete your job, it means that you also have less need of representation by unions.
Anyway, for some this settlement has amounted to as much as an extra 50 per cent of their salary for every year worked.
Not that it's over. The on-going row about the three years of protected pay for bin men under the council's more recent revamp of its job grading system, still unfairly excludes these women.
So that's more discrimination, and the likelihood of more claims being made, although again it's not something you ever hear mentioned.
Even worse though is that the council is still fighting against paying compensation to those women who do "work of equal value". These women are mostly in clerical or administrative posts, and admittedly, establishing equal value can be difficult, but basically it boils down to demands of the job such as effort, skill and decision-making.
A nursing home sewing room assistant is judged to do work of equal value to a plumber, canteen workers and cleaners are of equal value to clerical workers.
Yet in its desire not to pay the women their legal dues, the council is spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' money fighting a losing battle in the courts.
It has even gone as far as trying to deny that it is their employer, as the women are based in different departments, in different buildings, across the city. It would be laughable if it wasn't such an insidious dereliction of duty to its staff.
Already the council has been told by the Honourable Lady Smith at an Employment Appeal Tribunal that it has to pay up. It is now appealing that decision to the Inner House of the Court of Session, which won't be heard until next June - racking up more legal costs for the Edinburgh public, and lining the pockets of illustrious QCs.
And yet were these women employed by Glasgow City Council all of this would have been settled by now. That, if nothing else, should shame those running the city.
Getting the money to pay compensation is not the issue. The council set aside £34m which has been spent just settling the manual workers' claims. For the rest it will now likely have to borrow money - for which the Scottish Government has given its permission.
But secondly, morally and legally, the council has to pay. It is not the fault of the women involved that they have been underpaid for so long. It is the fault of past and present councillors, officials and trade union leaders.
The council will lose its appeal. It is also in danger of losing what's left of its good name. And surely the Lib Dems and SNP councillors would love to take the moral high ground over their Labour counterparts?
It is time to stop squabbling with the women who have done nothing but work hard for their employer. It's time to pay up
