NLC Update (11/11/15)

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.    
  

Performance Pay (29 October 2014)

I'm not sure what performance bonus, if any, Iris Wylie received in 2013/14 as head of human resources in North Lanarkshire Council.  

But if Iris Wylie received a single penny it would be completely unjustified and a disgrace, if you ask me.

Because how can North Lanarkshire possibly believe it's right to reward senior managers with big bonus payments when the Council has made such a mess of equal pay?

A mess that council officials have been forced to admit at the ongoing Employment Tribunal in Glasgow although, as yet, no one has accepted responsibility or been held to account for a series on 'errors' and 'mistakes' in scoring and grading thousands of low paid jobs, including those of Home Care workers. 

Now North Lanarkshire's web site (see extract below) says that 21 chief officers outside the senior management team receive a performance bonus of between £4,684.68 and £9,485.11 which comes to between £98,378.28 and £199.187.31 a year.

What must other Council workers think, especially those still fighting for equal pay?

Other chief officers

Individual service delivery within each directorate is the responsibility of a Head of Service. There were 24* Heads of Service whose salaries in 2013/14 ranged between £17,076.98 and £94,580.19 plus performance-related pay between £4,684.68 and £9,485.11. The expenses reimbursed for this group in 2013/14 totals £1,245.65.

*There are 21 Head of Service posts but, due to promotion and retirement, a total of 24 people filled these posts in 2013/14.