North Lanarkshire Update

Lots of readers have been in touch to say how disgusted at North Lanarkshire's latest foot dragging tactics over equal pay. 

I quite understand, I have to say.

Just compare and contrast the time, effort and careful planning that went into delivering a highly lucrative performance scheme for North Lanarkshire's chief officials which earned this small group of senior staff over £2 million in annual bonuses between 2002 and 2014.

Now the Council's lowest paid staff never got the chance to participate in a bonus scheme like this one, quite the opposite in fact because during this period they were all still fighting the Council for equal pay.   

According to the North Lanarkshire rumour mill there may be as few as two (2) people assigned the task of checking and verifying the information regarding individual equal pay claims which is why I asked on the blog site the other day whether the Council's chief executive might be lending a hand. 

In any event I am pressing ahead with my plans to turn the heat up on the Council to get the job done as quickly as possible, particularly as this was supposed to have been completed by the early part of April.

I am busy drafting an open letter to local politicians (NLC councillors, MSPs and candidates standing in the Westminster general election) and with a bit of luck I will be able to deliver a copy to the Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy, on one of his future campaign visits to Lanarkshire.

So I need some volunteers to join me and maybe a few readers are up to the task.

No egg throwing or rudeness will be involved, just a simple question: "How can the Scottish Labour leader justify a Labour-run council behaving in the way and what is he prepared to do about it?"