Glasgow - Court of Session
The A4ES legal team is meeting this week to finalise its response to Glasgow City Council's application seeking leave to appeal the Court of Session decision which judged the council's WPBR pay scheme to be 'unfit for purpose'.
I will share the A4ES 'answers' once they have been lodged and come to think of it I will also publish Glasgow's application so that readers can see for themselves what the City Council is saying in support of a further appeal to the UK Supreme Court.
Now I am optimistic about seeing off GCC's application for leave to appeal because in my view the Council's case is very weak - in fact it's just a rehash of the unsuccessful arguments Glasgow made at the original Court of Session hearing.
For example, the City Council raises the cost implications of the judgment, but I fail to see how that can have any bearing on the outcome since the cost represents 'loss of income' to thousands of low paid women claimants who have been paid so much less than their male comparators for the past 10 years.
So setting aside the enormous political problems an appeal to the UK Supreme Court would present to an SNP led Glasgow, I expect the City Council to lose its application although, frustratingly, that is not necessarily the end of the matter.
Because the City Council could then make a further application direct to the UK Supreme Court, despite having repeatedly pledged to end the litigation and resolve all the outstanding equal pay cases by negotiation.
We shall see what happens and I understand that we can expect to hear the outcome of GCC's application next month, i.e. sometime in November.
A4ES and Unison are working together on this issue, by the way, which is good news for all the claimants, but the ridiculous GMB is not involved because the union was not part of the original appeal to the Court of Session.
Glasgow - Court of Session (08/10/17)
"How come an SNP council is trying to raise the case in the UK supreme court, is a Scottish judicial decision not good enough?"
Now that's a very good point, I have to admit.
Especially when you consider that the Court of Session is Scotland's highest civil court and that the CoS delivered a cogent, powerful and unanimous judgment .
So if GCC were to be granted leave to appeal, the SNP will look pretty ridiculous if it sets off to the UK Supreme Court in London to overturn the considered views of three senior Scottish judges.
But I don't think that is going to happen for reasons I will explain on the blog site later today.
But I don't think that is going to happen for reasons I will explain on the blog site later today.
First Minister and Equal Pay (07/10/17)
"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.
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.
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.
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)
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
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 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.
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
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
