NLC Update (14/01/15)

Good news for equal pay claimants in North Lanarkshire - the Council has just lost the argument over the interest rate that should be used in calculating claims for back pay.

The Glasgow Employment Tribunal has just released its decision which is to uphold the established rate of 8% and this will obviously come as a huge blow to North Lanarkshire Council. 

So let's hope it helps to knock some sense into them!

North Lanarkshire Update (11 November 2014)



I spent a fascinating couple of hours at the Glasgow Employment Tribunal the other day listening to the ebb and flow of the arguments in the so-called equal value cases, i.e. the equal pay claims brought by former APT&C staff in North Lanarkshire Council. 

Now the first thing to say is that this was a 'remedies' hearing because the Council, after years of resisting these cases, has now put its hands up and admitted that it has no proper defence.

So the claimants have won, if you like, which is great news of course.

What the Council is arguing about now is the size of the bill and over two things in particular: whether the Council should be required to pay interest on the claims at the established rate of 8% a year and whether the claimants are entitled to an additional award for 'injury to feelings'.

Now it won't surprise regular readers to learn that I think the Council deserves to be 'banged up' on both counts because they have dragged these cases out for years while denying that systematic and substantial pay discrimination was taking place against a largely female workforce.

I feel angry and upset about that never mind the women on the sharp end of things who have been treated much less favourably than their male colleagues for all these years, so why should they not receive a significant award for injury to feelings. 

On the other 'interest' point the Council is arguing that the established 8% rate of interest should not be used and that the tribunal should apply a lower figure for calculating the amount of back pay that claimants are owed.

The Council's argument is that a 'serious injustice' would result if North Lanarkshire had to pay a rate of 8% for the period of the claims, some of which go back to the year 2000/2001.

Yet this is the same Council - a Labour-run council - in which the most senior and highly paid officials have been enjoying performance bonuses worth thousands of pounds a year while the rest of their staff have had to put up with a policy of pay restraint.

I don't know about anyone else, but that seems like a far greater injustice to me and my view is that if these senior officials had any integrity - they should all resign.  

Serious Injustice (17 November 2014)



North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) is arguing about an alleged 'serious injustice' over the amount of back pay that equal pay claimants are entitled to in an ongoing tribunal case.

So I thought I'd contrast this claim with what I regard as a real injustice - the favourable treatment that NLC senior officials receive when it comes to their salaries and pay. 

For example, the council's chief executive, Gavin Whitefield receives a performance bonus of £11,039.20 on top of his annual salary of £136,473 which means an extra 8.3% bonus on top of his already sizeable basic salary.

While low paid women workers have faced a policy of pay restraint for years which included pay freezes for some and pay increases as low as 1%. 

Now that's what I call a real injustice and if you ask me the senior officials and Labour politicians running North Lanarkshire Council should hang their heads in shame or, better still, they should all resign.



Performance Pay - extract from NLC web site

Gavin Whitefield
Gavin Whitefield CBE, Chief Executive
The Chief Executive within North Lanarkshire is the council's chief policy advisor. He is the main link between council officials and elected members. He is responsible for corporate governance and seeks to ensure the co-ordination of the organisation and all its functions. Of primary concern to the Chief Executive is the overall direction and performance of the council.
Salary 2013/14: £136,578.03 (plus performance-related pay of £11,395.26

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