GCC seeks to split the workforce into haves and have nots
Following this weeks negotiations the unions and A4ES have issued the following statement. : (notice the difference from the councils spin statement)
As you will be aware the claimants’ legal team from Action4Equality, UNISON, GMB and UNITE have been meeting with the council’s lawyers on the outstanding equal pay claims. There are over 5,000 claimants who have still received no settlement for the period up to March 2018, and 18,000 claimants who are still waiting for a settlement for the period after March 2018.
You will also be aware that the council has estimated that the new pay and grading system to eliminate gender pay discrimination will not be implemented until 2024 due to the volume of work involved around job evaluation and creating the new system. The trade unions therefore want the council to make further equal pay compensation payments now.
The council has stated that it is willing to discuss payments for those who have had nothing so far but only for a very small number of the jobs that were paid out under the deal reached in 2019. If the council is seeking to adopt this approach for claims outstanding up to March 2018, then the trade unions must assume that this is also what the council proposes to do for claims after March 2018. All unacceptable to the trade unions.
We are not clear on all the jobs the council wish to exclude however the following are already on the excluded list:
– Clerical and Administration workers (whole council)
– Child Development Officers and Team Leaders (Education)
– Social Care Workers (Social work residential and fieldwork)
At least 4000 workers currently work in posts with these job titles and are of course overwhelmingly women. These posts were included in the 2019 pay-out. The council position would mean none of the new claims would get anything for pre-2018 and none would be offered a further payment post-2018. The council is threatening to do the same to many other jobs too.
We made an agreement with the council to settle these claims in 2019. Why won’t they agree to the same settlement in 2021? There is no moral or political justification for such behavior.
To date the council have said they are only willing to discuss home carers and catering workers.
The claimants legal team is pressing ahead with the claims in the Employment Tribunal. However, the view of the trade unions is that the council’s current position is unacceptable and requires a strong and clear response.
The trade union will be in touch soon to consult with those members they intend to ask to participate in strike action.
THE CLAIMANT TEAM
Just to be clear the council have already excluded every single job – irrespective of grade, that contains the words “administrative “, “clerical”, “child development “and “social care worker”
They have refused to give us an explanation as to why they paid these posts up to 2018 before but won’t do so now. We repeatedly asked for this and they refused. They said we must justify why they should be kept in. We said it was the fair and right thing to do. Not enough say the council.
They promised more jobs will be excluded in due course.
Happy to answer any of your questions