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First Minister and Equal Pay



I've had lots of feedback to my recent posts about the First Minister and equal pay - here are just a few examples.

"Tweet sent"

"I sent Nicola Sturgeon an email and a group of us are going to ask her for a meeting"

"I’ve already sent one to her last month and the reply I got was basically it’s up to individual councils how they deal with it!"

"I got one saying that too ... disgrace"

Now the point of the exercise is not to make impossible or unreasonable demands of the City Council or Nicola Sturgeon, either as a Glasgow MSP or as First Minister.

But the fact of the matter is that the City Council is still refusing to come clean and explain how the interests of the bonus earning male groups were 'looked after' under the WPBR pay scheme.

And if you ask me, that's a national disgrace especially as we're talking about Scotland's largest and best resourced council which has cheated and robbed low paid women workers of their rights to equal pay for years.

No one is asking the First Minister, the Scottish Government or Glasgow MSPs to take control of the City Council - all that's being asked is that local politicians raise their voices and speak out about this terrible secrecy and refusal to shine a light on Glasgow's furtive pay arrangements.

I am absolutely prepared to accept that the new SNP led City Council is genuine about its desire to reach a negotiated settlement of the outstanding equal pay claims, but the evidence suggests that this mindset is not exactly shared by senior officials.  

Glasgow City Council, of course, is quite entitled to ask Audit Scotland for practical assistance and presumably the Scottish Government would have no problem in supporting such a move, especially as the council is having such difficulty in getting its finger out

Individuals employees with equal pay claims going back 10 full years could ask that Audit Scotland (Scotland's public spending watchdog) gets directly involved, but this request would carry much more weight if it were supported by local councillors, MSPs, MPs, the First Minister and so on.

So sending a message to the First Minister seems perfectly reasonable and sensible in all the circumstances, all the more so if you agree that Glasgow's behaviour over the past 10 years is a national disgrace. 

And if you ask me, it's high time Glasgow's MSPs rose up and really started getting behind their local constituents in this long-running fight for equal pay.

  


Messaging the First Minister (06/10/17)



The SNP's 83rd annual conference gets underway this weekend at the SEC Centre in Glasgow and will hear from Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, a local Glasgow MSP for the 'Southside' constituency. 

Glasgow City Council (Scotland's largest local authority) has a largely female workforce who  have been cheated and robbed their rights to equal pay for years which is a national disgrace, if you ask me.

The new SNP led administration has pledged to sort this mess out, but the Council's WPBR pay arrangements are still shrouded in secrecy despite being described as 'unfit for purpose' by the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.

So why not send a message to the First Minister, via email or Twitter, calling on Glasgow City Council to commit itself to openness and transparency over equal pay:

Please highlight the fight for equal pay at SNP 2017 and urge Glasgow City Council to 'come clean' over its WPBR pay scheme?

Readers can send a message to Nicola Sturgeon at the Twitter address below or via email 

Twitter@NicolaSturgeon    

Email
FirstMinister@gov.scot
Nicola.Sturgeon.msp@scottish.parliament.uk


As a Glasgow voter and council taxpayer I will be messaging the First Minister this weekend and I hope that lots of readers, and their families, will do so as well.

'People make Glasgow' after all and the more who get involved in this campaign the better.

  

First Minister and Equal Pay (04/10/17)



A number of readers have taken the initiative and written directly to the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, about the fight for equal pay in Glasgow City Council.

A civil servant has responded on the First Minister's behalf and here's what the chap (Anthony Romain) had to say:

October 2017

Dear XXXXXXXX

Thank you for your email of 20 September to the First Minister about equal pay for Glasgow City Council employees. I have been asked to reply. 

Councils are independent of the Scottish Government and are responsible for meeting their legal obligations to their employees, including those on equal pay. Ministers therefore cannot force councils to settle equal pay claims. However, Ministers have repeatedly made clear that delays by councils in settling equal pay claims are completely unacceptable. 

Audit Scotland published on 7 September an audit report on equal pay in Scottish councils that included setting out actions that councils should take. The report is on the Audit Scotland website at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/news/councils-yet-to-resolve-long- standing-issues-with-equal-pay. Ministers expect each council with outstanding claims to take note of this report and take urgent action. 

As you may be aware, in May the Court of Session ruled in favour of the claimants in an equal pay case against Glasgow City Council described as affecting around 6,000 female workers. In response, the new Leader of the Council was reported as saying that the council would have open discussions with those workers and their representatives about how to give effect to that ruling.

In a second case, decided in August, the council is reported as having sought leave to appeal. However it is reported Council Leader Susan Aitken has now stated that any remaining legal proceedings are to provide clarity and will not be used to delay settlement of any outstanding claims. We understand the Council has already begun meeting Trade Unions. We hope the Council and Trade Unions will reach agreement and resolve all outstanding claims quickly. 

I hope this reply is helpful. 

Yours sincerely 



Anthony Romain
Local Government Division and Analytical Services Division 

Now the first point to make is that Action 4 Equality Scotland (A4ES) represents over 80% of the equal pay claimants in Glasgow.

The reason being that the local Trade Unions lost all credibility over the fight for equal pay after:
  • Keeping their members in the dark for years over the huge pay gap between traditional male and female jobs
  • Supporting the introduction of the WPBR pay scheme in Glasgow in 2007 which the Court of Session has now judged to be 'unfit for purpose'
  • Agreeing with council management to place an arbitrary 'cap' of just £9,000 on the financial compensation available to equal pay claimants
  • Excluding thousands of council workers (e.g. former APT&C staff) from receiving compensation even though they had perfectly valid equal pay claims 
  • Seeking special and more favourable treatment for bonus earning, traditional male jobs such as Gardeners, Refuse Workers and Gravediggers 
  • Betraying the interests of thousands of low paid women who were supposed to get a new deal under the landmark 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement
The GMB union, for example, was not even part of the A4ES led challenge to the WPBR in the Court of Session and will play no part in the ongoing appeal process.

Yet the First Minister's spokesperson says he hopes "the Council and the Trade Unions will reach agreement and resolve all outstanding claims quickly" which suggests to me that the Scottish Government is very badly out of touch with what's happening on the ground.

Now I don't expect the First Minister or any Glasgow politician for that matter to 'tell' the City Council what to do, but they can and should express their opinion, for example, on the need for Glasgow to 'come clean' and explain how the men's earnings were 'looked after' under the WPBR pay scheme.

Hence my recent suggestion that Audit Scotland be asked to provide help to get to the bottom of this mystery if City Council officials either can't or won't do the jobs themselves.

The bottom line is that for the first time ever Glasgow has an SNP led City Council with an SNP Government leading the Scottish Parliament.

So this is simply not good enough if you ask me, because the cvil servant's 'pass the parcel' response reads like something out of Yes Minister rather than a call to action on behalf of thousands of low paid workers in Glasgow who have been cheated and robbed of their right to equal pay for years.

Just look at what Anthony Romain had to say back in February 2017 when Glasgow still had a Labour run City Council - and the worrying thing is that he is speaking for the First Minister not for himself.

All of which means that it's time to give more time and attention to the politics surrounding the fight for equal pay in Glasgow because it seems that many local politicians seem to regard this as a spectator sport - rather than a big issue which demands their attention and active support.   

  

February 2017

Dear xxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for contacting the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, regarding your employment with Cordia and Glasgow City Council. I have been asked to respond.

I am sorry to hear of your concerns, however councils and their Arm’s Length External Organisations, such as Cordia, are independent of the Scottish Government and are responsible for meeting their legal obligations to their employees, including those on equal pay. Ministers therefore cannot force councils, or Cordia, to settle equal pay claims; but they have repeatedly called on them to do so immediately and not continue to keep thousands of people waiting for their settlement. Ministers have repeatedly made clear that delays by councils in settling equal pay claims are completely unacceptable. Many claims go back to 2006 or even further; there can be no justification for taking so long to resolve this.

You may like to know the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government for 2016-17 contained a commitment to consider a system of penalties for local authorities that haven’t settled outstanding equal pay claims, or are still not paying equal pay by April 2017.

In the context of that commitment, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance MSP, wrote to local authorities on 24 October to find out just how many equal pay claims are outstanding. In addition Audit Scotland is carrying out an audit of equal pay in Scottish local authorities, with the aim of publishing a report in Spring 2017. We are keeping in close touch with Audit Scotland officials on this work, which when completed should provide an informed and authoritative view on the volume and cost of claims across local government. When we have that information we should be better placed to decide how we will proceed with encouraging councils to meet their obligations.

The Scottish Government has also agreed to give councils time to plan for the funding of equal pay claims, and to allow them to use capital receipts to fund the costs of claims. It is up to councils to manage their resources effectively, including meeting costs of equal pay claims: but Ministers cannot agree to these outstanding claims continuing to remain unsettled. 


I am pleased to hear you won your Employment Tribunal. But in the meantime I would advise you to contact your employers directly and ask them to provide you with an update on what is happening with your claim and when they may be able to resolve it.

I hope this advice is of some help.


Yours sincerely



Anthony Romain
Local Government Division and Analytical Services Division 


  


First Minister and Equal Pay (20/09/17)


A number of Home Carers have been in touch to suggest launching a petition to help persuade Glasgow City Council to get its finger out over equal pay.

If you ask me, the current crop of senior officials are in this up to their necks and they have an obvious vested interest in dragging things out for years on end - by which time they will have all left the Council and/or retired on their final salary pensions.

So I've drafted some words below which people can use to build support amongst the City Council workforce and wider public.

In my view, the behaviour of Glasgow City Council is a national disgrace and it's high time that the Council's pay arrangements were brought out into the open

Nicola Sturgeon rightly condemned this 'foot-dragging' behaviour by Scottish councils back in 2016 and now she has the opportunity to do something about it in her own back yard.

The key point of the petition is that if Glasgow's officials are being deliberately awkward or if they are claiming not to have sufficient resources to 'come clean' over the City Council's pay arrangements, then the Scottish Government can send in some outside help.

No doubt this would help to concentrate minds and get to the bottom of things and explain just how the male jobs were 'looked after' by council managers and the trade unions once the WPBR/EDC pay scheme was introduced in 2007.      

Nicola Sturgeon's contact details are:

Email
FirstMinister@gov.scot
Nicola.Sturgeon.msp@scottish.parliament.uk

Twitter
@NicolaSturgeon 

Readers of the blog site can also help by spreading the word by 'Sharing', 'Liking' and 'Retweeting' this post on Facebook and Twitter - and by raising these issues directly with local councillors, MSPs and MPs.

Remember - many hands make light work and so the more people who get involved the sooner this business will al be over.

  

Glasgow and Equal Pay

"We, the undersigned, call upon Nicola Sturgeon to use her authority and influence as a Glasgow MSP and First Minister to bring about a speedy resolution to Glasgow City Council's outstanding equal pay cases.

"We note that the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, recently judged Glasgow's WPBR pay arrangements introduced in 2007 to be unfit for purpose with Lady Norris (one of the judges) commenting that the City Council 'looked after' the interests of the men.

"We also note that while there is clear evidence of preferential treatment being given to male dominated jobs, council officials seem unwilling or unable to 'come clean' and explain the details of these secret pay deals and what effect they had on the pay of Gardeners, Gravediggers, Refuse Workers and so on.

"We call upon the First Minister to help ensure that Glasgow City Council's pay arrangements are fair, open, honest and transparent going forward - based on the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

"To that end we also call upon the First Minister to send in Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission (Scotland's public spending watchdog) to work with the City Council leadership to uncover, as a matter of the highest priority,how the higher paid groups of male workers were 'looked after' when the WPBR/EDC pay scheme was introduced in 2007."  

  


The Fight for Equal Pay (19/04/16)

Image result for made in dagenham + images


The Herald reports that Nicola Sturgeon plans to get tough with council bosses who are dragging their feet over equal pay, if she is re-elected in next month's Scottish Parliament elections and returns as First Minister.

Now that's a welcome development if you ask me, because I've been campaigning for months for the Scottish Government to take an active interest in the terrible mess that many Scottish councils have made of their pay arrangements and obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

I can't be the only person to find it ironic that Scotland's First Minister 'in-waiting' delivered her message to the STUC because, as regular readers know, the trade unions have been part of the problem in respect of equal pay with their slavish support for the Labour Party and Labour-run councils, along with their short-sighted focus on protecting the interests of traditional male jobs.

So who knows, maybe Nicola Sturgeon is keeping up with events bias the blog site which is all the more reason to step up the pressure on councils like Glasgow and North Lanarkshire to do the right thing, put an end to this sorry saga and resolve all of their outstanding equal pay claims.

Read the full piece in The Herald via the internet link below.



Nicola Sturgeon vows to get tough with council bosses over pay equality for women

Nicola Sturgeon vows to get tough with council chiefs over pay equality for women

By Daniel Sanderson - The Herald

NICOLA Sturgeon will today warn council chiefs that she is ready to hit them with tough new penalties if they continue to drag their feet over wage equality for thousands of female workers.

The First Minister, in an address to the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) in Dundee, is expected to announce that if she is re-elected next month she will explore sanctions that the Scottish Government could impose on town halls if they refuse to honour equal pay obligations.

It is understood that the feasibility of imposing fines on local authorities through their financial settlement will be considered, if they fail to resolve disputes by a deadline of April next year.



North Lanarkshire Update (16/03/16)


Some people say that politicians can't get directly involved in the fight for equal pay in Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council.

But this is nonsense, of course, because there are countless examples of Scottish politicians getting stuck into an issue even when it involves an 'independent corporate entity which is entirely separate from the Scottish Government'.

Take the Farepak scandal, for example. 

Readers may recall that Farepak (a private company) went bust in 2006 leaving thousands of people out of pocket in the run up to Christmas, as their savings went down the drain.  

Yet the fact that Farepak was an 'independent corporate entity' didn't stop politicians of every stripe and political party queuing up to get their tuppence worth in and demanding that something must be done.

Here are a few extracts of the press coverage that Farepak collapse attracted over the years and as is plain for all to see the politicians didn't exactly hold back with their public comments, criticism and calls for action.

What is needed in North Lanarkshire is a 'call to arms' if you ask me, a demand for action inside and outside the Council so that senior figures are held to account for the terrible mess that's been made of the Council's pay arrangements over the years.



SNP urges aid for Farepak crash victims

The Scotsman - 24 December 2014

THE SNP today issued a Christmas Eve appeal to the UK Government for compensation for Farepak families, who are still waiting for reparation four years after the collapse of the Christmas savings club.

Work and Pensions spokeswoman Eilidh Whiteford has written to Business Secretary Vince Cable, asking why 20,000 Scottish customers who lost their money in 2006 are still out of pocket.

She said: "The UK Government bent over backwards to bail out the banks, and is rightly compensating customers of Equitable Life but hasn't found a single penny for the Farepak families.

"It is four years since Farepak collapsed, but that nightmare of Christmas past is still being felt by many low-income families.

"It is simply disgraceful that, years after the company collapsed, customers are still waiting for their money back."


The Daily Record - 
16 July 2012

Labour’s Katy Clark, MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, has written to Cable to demand answers over the collapse of the case.

She said: “This decision is yet another kick in the teeth for those who lost out as a result of the Farepak collapse.

“More than five years on, savers have yet to receive a penny of their money back or see those responsible held accountable.”


22 Dec 2008

Glasgow East MP, John Mason, has issued an eve of Christmas appeal calling for the UK Government to bring forward compensation for Farepak families, who are still waiting for reparation two years after the collapse.

Comparing the UK Government’s response to bailing out the banks with Farepak, Mr Mason has written to Gareth Thomas, Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs, asking why 20,000 Scottish customers – including hundreds of Glaswegians – are still out of pocket two years later.

SNP call for major Farepak probe

BBC News - 17 November 2006


Farepak customers have been fighting to win compensation

The Scottish National Party has called for a criminal investigation into the collapse of the Christmas savings company Farepak.More than 150,000 customers lost an average of £400 each when the company went into administration in October.

Stewart Hosie MP, the SNP's Treasury spokesman has written to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. He asked him to consider launching a criminal investigation after the Swindon-based firm collapsed.


Stewart Hosie MP, SNP's Treasury spokesman said: 

"Press reports would indicate that large sums of savers money were salted away to Farepak's parent company EHR and that Farepak continued to request and receive money until very shortly before it folded.

"I hope that the DTI will pursue a criminal investigation."

First Minister and Equal Pay (15/03/16)


A good number of readers took up my suggestion of writing to Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to highlight the scandalous track record or Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council in relation to equal pay. 

Now I have a lot of time for Nicola Sturgeon, but I think it's fair to say that people feel rather underwhelmed at the First Minister's official response from a civil servant on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Here is the 'guts' of what the civil servant had to say:

"Councils are independent corporate entities and entirely separate from the Scottish Government. Their powers are set out in statute and, as long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority to manage its day to say business. This includes decisions on pay and conditions of employment of council staff. They are accountable to their own electorates, not the Scottish Government, and Scottish Ministers have no general powers that would enable them to call on a council to account for its actions. I would also add that the GMB is an entirely independent organisation and the Scottish Government has no power to intervene in union matters.

"The Scottish Government is keen to see the resolution of all equal pay claims. That is why in August 2014 the then Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Economic Growth, John Swinney, agreed to a request from COSLA for more flexibility to deal with equal pay claims, by allowing councils additional time to plan for the funding of equal pay payments, and to use capital receipts to fund the cost of claims. However, it is up to any individual council to decide whether to take up this offer.

"You may like to know that in December 2014in the Scottish Parliament, Marco Biagi MSP, the Minister for Local Government and Community Empowerment, said that he thought the delays in settling equal pay disputes was unacceptable, and that he would continue to challenge this. However, as Mr Biagi also said the Scottish Government has no formal power to intervene in this matter."

Now this is typical "Yes Minister' stuff which faces both ways at the same time if you ask me, with a general message of concern and support while emphasising that the Scottish Government has no formal power to intervene over the mess that Scotland's fourth largest council has made of equal pay.

Now as everyone knows, that is a statement of the bleedin' obvious, as they say, because  no one is expecting Nicola Sturgeon or other Scottish Ministers to step in and take over day-to-day responsibility for the running of North Lanarkshire Council. 

But as I pointed out to the First Minister in my own letter dated 28 November 2014 I believe that is is possible for the Scottish Government to investigate North Lanarkshire Council's behaviour under The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

My full letter to the First Minister is reproduced below in the blog post titled 'Food For Thought' dated 17 February 2016 although this extract focuses on the key provision of Clause 11.


"My purpose in raising these matters with you, as First Minister, is to invite the Scottish Government to use its powers under the Equality Act to launch an investigation into North Lanarkshire Council's behaviour. My reading of The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 suggests that the Scottish Government can intervene and is able to do so under Clause 11 of the Statutory Instrument which says:

"Duty to consider other matters

"11. In carrying out its duties under these regulations, a listed authority may be required to consider such matters as may be specified from time to time by the Scottish Ministers." 

So if you ask me, Scottish Ministers (whether Nicola Sturgeon or local government minister, Marco Biagi) do have the power to call North Lanarkshire to account, for example, by requiring the to explain how the Council made such a mess of its pay arrangements for the past 10 years and more.   

In other words it's very much a case of 'game on' and the key thing now is to persuade NLC politicians, local and nationally, that the behaviour of North Lanarkshire Council deserves to be placed under and independent scrutiny.

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