Glasgow - Equal Pay Update



A Glasgow reader hit the nail on the head with this comment on the big decision facing the City Council over its WPBR pay scheme which has been judged to be 'unfit for purpose' by the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.    

"We will find out in next couple of weeks what Susan Aitken's and the SNP's true colours are. When they sorted out the janitors dispute after they came into power they weren't slow taking credit.

"So as far as I am concerned if they do appeal the buck stops at Susan Aitken and the SNP. At the last appeal they said it was clarity (got that from the judges) now I for one could never vote for the SNP again if they run off to London to appeal. In my eyes they would have lost all credibility."

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To be fair, I think it's pretty clear that a big battle is being fought behind the scenes between elected councillors and senior officials.

But the discriminatory nature of Glasgow's WPBR pay arrangements are there for all to see and have now been laid bare in a powerful and unanimous judgment in Scotland's highest civil court.

The three judges were so unimpressed at the City Council's case that they went on to reject, unanimously again, Glasgow's application seeking 'leave to appeal' to the UK Supreme Court in London.

The fact is that the senior officials who have been defending the WPBR pay scheme are reluctant to admit that they got it badly wrong - that they let Glasgow's lowest paid workers down and carried on making a terrible mess of equal pay for another 10 years.  

'Facts are chiels that winna ding', as Robert Burns once wrote and if you ask me this all comes down to who really runs the City Council. 


  

Glasgow - Equal Pay Update (07/01/18)


The next round of settlement discussions with Glasgow City Council is due to take place on Tuesday 9 January 2018 - the first meeting of the New Year.

I think everyone's hope and expectation is that these talks will get down to brass tacks and begin to focus on exactly how the City Council plans to resolve all of its outstanding equal pay claims, as well as bringing in a replacement pay scheme for its thoroughly discredited, 'unfit for purpose' WPBR.

As regular readers know, Glasgow's application seeking 'leave to appeal' the Court of Session ruling (on the WPBR) to the UK Supreme Court was thrown out on its ear back on 21 December 2017.

The City Council's grounds of appeal were given short shrift in yet another unanimous decision by the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.

What is not clear yet is whether Glasgow has finally accepted the reasoned judgment of the Court of Session - or will the City Council now try and seek 'leave to appeal' the damning WPBR decision in a further application directly to the UK Supreme Court in London?  

Now if you ask me, this would be very unwise because the judgment of the Court of Session was crystal clear and unequivocal which is why the Council's case was so comprehensively torn apart on 21 December 2017.

Not only that, of course, because there would be a huge political price to pay if an SNP led Glasgow were foolish enough to try and overturn a sound judgement from Scotland's highest civil court.

Particularly as the Council Leader, Susan Aitken, has repeatedly and publicly stated that the Council has no intention of pursuing such an appeal.

The Council has 28 days to lodge a further 'leave to appeal' application to the UK Supreme Court which expires on 17 January 2018.

So there's a huge amount at stake and this is exactly the kind of issue on which you would expect Glasgow's politicians to be speaking out and making clear where they stand - local councillors, MPs and MSPs.  

  

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