Home Support Workers

Lots of Home Support Workers (HSW) in North Lanarkshire have been in touch about the letters people have received from the Council about their grades.

For some employees, but not all, the Council is proposing to increase the HSW grade to Grade 3 although the important point to note is that this does not address people's equal pay claims.

Because the pay comparison that is being made in the Employment Tribunals is with much better paid, male dominated jobs - the issue at stake in terms of equal pay is not about the different rates of pay that have been in existence for years between different grades of Home Support Workers.

Now the people I've been speaking to tell me that HSWs all do the same work and support the same range of clients - in other words that they are interchangeable with one another - and the Council now seems to agree with that because it has finally agreed to move everyone on to Grade NLC 3.

But for some strange reason this regarding exercise only being backdated to May 2013 which makes no sense, if you ask me, and understandably this has caused an awful lot of resentment amongst Home Support Workers.

As I reported on the blog site previously, North Lanarkshire Council have now been forced to admit that the grading of Home Support Workers is wrong although, so far, no one is taking responsibility for making such a mess of the job evaluation process and the way different groups of workers (male and female) were assimilated on to the council's new pay structures.    

   

North Lanarkshire 

Lots of Home Support Workers in North Lanarkshire have been in touch to say that they have received letters from the Council regarding their grades - which they are being asked to sign and return. 

Now if I were a Home Support Worker, I wouldn't be signing any such letter at this stage because these issues are all caught up with people's equal pay claims against the Council.

As I understand what's going on, the grades of only some Home Support Workers are being raised from NLC 2 to NLC 3 which is a rather strange thing to do as this does not address the differences in the pay arrangements between male and female council jobs.

Just as bizarre is the fact that the new grade is being backdated only to 2013 when these issues date back to 2006/2007.

And as regular readers know, the ongoing Employment Tribunal case is all about the pay differences between traditional male and female in North Lanarkshire and the Council has now been forced to admit that gradings of Home Support Workers, Playground Supervisors and School Crossing Patrollers are unsafe and unsound - or 'not to be relied' upon.

The Council says this is down to a 'mistake' or 'error' on their part yet senior officials within North Lanarkshire have been defending the job evaluation process for years.

So if you ask me, the best thing would be for the Council to withdraw these letters and I certainly wouldn't be signing any such letter without benefit of proper legal advice.   
     
I have passed on copies of letters that have been sent to me by readers and A4ES clients in North Lanarkshire, but others can do so to the following email address:

enquiries@action4equality.co.uk