NLC Update



As the summer holiday season in Scotland begins to draw to a close, I think this is probably a good time to post a brief update about the the ongoing fight for equal pay in North Lanarkshire.

As regular readers know a series of meetings has been arranged during August to pursue settlement talks with the Council, but if these discussions do not result in real progress towards resolving all the outstanding equal pay claims, then all the cases will return immediately to the Employment Tribunal in Glasgow.

For obvious reasons, there will not be a 'running commentary' on the settlement discussions with the Council, but as soon as there is any news to report (one way or the other) the details will be published here on the A4ES blog site.

Lots of people will have been on holiday during July and so I plan to re-post various articles from the blog site about North Lanarkshire, which have been published over the past month or so, to bring everyone bang up to date.

I have been as active as ever on the Freedom of Information (FoI) front and there are some very interesting developments to share with readers from North Lanarkshire.

So watch this space.


Freedom of Information (1 July 2014)


Here's an interesting response to a recent Freedom of Information request to North Lanarkshire Council regarding membership of the Job Evaluation Steering Group (JESG) which played a pivotal role in shaping the Council's 'new' pay arrangements which were introduced in 2006.  

As regular readers, North Lanarkshire's job evaluation scheme and its pay arrangements have 'fallen apart', so to speak, at the ongoing Employment Tribunal hearing and isn't it interesting to note that at least some of the senior people in charge then are still in post in 2014, such as Iris Wylie who is now Head of Human Resources.   

The Council has declined to name the trade union officials from Unison, GMB and Unite who were all members of the JESG on the basis that these people were not senior officials of the Council or have since left the Council's employment. 

But the fact remains that the trade unions were involved in this whole business up to their necks and therefore must have known, if you ask me, about the very different ways in which male and female jobs were being treated back in 2006.

I do find it strange, however, that the Council is trying to protect the identities of the local trade unionists involved in the JESG because, to my mind, this is not 'personal data' in the sense that these individuals were acting in a representative capacity -  influencing and making decisions that affected the jobs of thousands of NLC workers.

So, surely their identity was public knowledge at no one could raise a serious objection to that information being released now.

I may appeal this particular point, but if readers in North Lanarkshire already know the answer then drop me a note as this may short circuit the whole affair.   


Dear Mr. Irvine

Request for Information

I refer again to your e-mail of 11 June 2014 seeking information in relation to the members of the Council’s Job Evaluation Steering Group between 2004 and 2006. 

Having investigated, please find set out below the names and job titles of the individuals who represented the Council on the Job Evaluation Steering Group between 2004 and 2006.

Iris Wylie – Head of Personnel Service (now Human Resources)
Kenneth Wilson – Head of Land Services
Ronnie Paul – Head of Social Work Resources
Chris Wishart – Payroll Manager

With regards to your request for the names of the Trade Union representatives, I regret to advise you that this constitutes personal data in respect of which disclosure would contravene the Data Protection principles and that this constitutes a ground of absolute exemption in terms of Section 38 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.  In coming to this conclusion, account has been taken of the fact that unlike the Council representatives, the Trade Union representatives were not senior employees of the Council and that some of the Trade Union representatives are no longer Council employees. 

That being said, and in order to be of some assistance, I can advise that the Trade Unions represented were Unison, TGWU and the GMB.

I hope this information is sufficient for your purpose.  If, however, you require further information – or I can assist in any other way – please let me know.

Yours sincerely




Neil McKay
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
Legal Services
North Lanarkshire Council

Freedom of Information













Here's another FoI request to North Lanarkshire Council - the point of which is to identify who was on the Job Evaluation Steering Group (JESG) last time round because if you ask me, the same people ought to be kept away from putting right the Council's big 'mistake'.

Particularly as no one has yet fully explained what went wrong, the precise nature of the 'mistake' and who is being held accountable for the subsequent mess which has ensued. 


11 June 2014
Gavin Whitefield
Chief Executive
North Lanarkshire Council



Dear Mr Whitefield

FOISA Request 

I would like to make the following request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002.

Please confirm names of the individuals who were members of the Council's Job Evaluation Steering Group (JESG) between 2004 and 2006?

At the same time, please confirm the designation or job title of these individuals if they were representing the Council on the JESG and the name of the trade union involved, if people were representing trade union interests?

I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail to: markirvine@compuserve.com
    
Kind regards


Mark Irvine

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