If a female employee has an equivalent job role to a male employee (where the role is rated as the same or have equal value) then the female employee is entitled to exactly the same terms and conditions provided to the male employee

To make a claim you MUST submit a form (et1) to the employment tribunal. No form no claim. You can, of course, do this yourself but the council insisted that they would only negotiate with the claimant group which included ours and the Unions clients. So the settlement offers were only made to claimants who were represented by the claimant group. Other claimants were dealt with later and we do not know what terms were offered or even if any offers have been made to them.

Put simply it is because we have a track record of getting our clients much more than the unions have achieved for their client members. Remember in Glasgow when we started the claims in August 2005 the unions immediately agreed a compensation scheme with the council where women received only about 25% of the value of the claim whereas our clients who didn’t take the original offers almost always ended up with considerably more money.

Same thing happened in many other councils including at North Lanarkshire where our non-manual clients often got five times the amount that the unions agreed to settle their members claims for. It is true that the unions will do the claims for free but we are working with the unions and we have a fundamental agreement with them that everyone gets the same net payment even after fees so that our clients (and theirs) are not disadvantaged.

Yes following a recent Supreme Court decision it is possible to make claims in the sheriff’s court and then have them transferred to the employment tribunal. However in Scotland the maximum period you can go back is five years so if you left the Council more than five years ago then we will not be able to claim. We also charge a 20% + VAT on any gross award you receive rather than 10% + VAT fee this is because this route requires your claim to go through the sheriff’s court rather than the Employment Tribunal and this is a much more expensive process than the Employment Tribunal. Some of the unions will not even make these claims due to the costs involved.

As long as you have already got a claim submitted with the Tribunal your claim will go up until the date you left employment

Virtually any women employed by Glasgow City Council or one of the Arm’s Length Organisations such as Cordia who is currently on grade 6 or below can claim, even some on grade 7 may have a claim if they do overtime. Essentially the question is do you earn less than men on your grade or lower, because of the effects of Non-Core Payments overtime and enhancement terms (which are much better for former bonus earners) almost everyone on grades 1-6 have claims. IF IN DOUBT CLAIM; WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE? SHY BAIRNS GET NOWT. The position will be reconsidered once the job evaluation scheme has been completed as this may show some people on higher grades may be able to claim.

Yes, but there are some restrictions. If your job is predominantly done by women then you can claim. If however you are in one of the comparator jobs like refuse or grounds maintenance then we can’t act for you. It is theoretically possible for men on lower bonuses to claim once the women succeed but these can be very difficult. MAKE AN APPLICATION  and we will be able to assess  if you are eligible

Sadly, it is impossible to say at this stage and very inadvisable even to guess/estimate just now.   We have found that people get very upset if the value of the claim is less than what the guess/estimate (although very happy if they get more). We often have people working together who think they are entitled to the same amounts but it turns out they have different claims for many different reasons such as length of service, overtime hours, sickness, additional jobs, shifts, date your claim was submitted to the Tribunal, if you have had any changes in your job during the period of your claim. Literally every calculation will be different. At the moment it is impossible because the Council has not completed the New pay and grading structure and not even begun to discuss new terms and conditions.

In Scotland claims are limited to 5 years from the date the claims are received by the Tribunal or back to the date which a previous settlement agreement covers up to. All claimants which received an offer of settlement in 2019 will have settled the claims for the period up to April 2018 so the ongoing claim will only be for the period from the 1st April 2018 up to the date which a new offer is agreed. If you have not received a settlement then this will go back 5 years from the date your claim is received by the Tribunal.

If you were a member of the Pension Scheme during the period of the settlement offer then your pension will need to be adjusted to reflect the additional settlement money you received. Usually a small percentage of your settlement money will be automatically deducted so that this can be contributed to your pension. Had you been earning the correct earning your contributions would have been slightly higher and this will need to be taken into account however this also means that your employer will be required to make the employer contributions which are usually 3 x higher than your contributions. It also means that you will be entitled to a higher pension going forward and if you have already retired this will need to be backdated to the date you started to received your pension payments. Our experience is that this is a HUGE BENEFIT.

a. If you owe the Council outstanding sums for Council Tax, overpayments of wages or overpayments of Housing Benefit,  the Council has deducted these sums from your offer. By signing the legal documents you agree to these deductions being made by the Council.

b. You may want to take advice from a debt adviser. Glasgow Advice and Information Network (GAIN) can signpost you to an appropriate adviser: https://www.gain4u.org.uk/(0808 801 1101).

YOU MUST TELL US NOW IF YOU KNOW YOU HAVE COUNCIL DEBTS OR OTHER DEBT ARRANGEMENTS SUCH AS A TRUST DEED.

Depending on the amount of compensation you receive, your social security benefits may be affected. Your past tax credits will not be affected but future tax credits may be affected. You should seek advice from a welfare rights advice service via Glasgow Advice and Information Network (GAIN): https://www.gain4u.org.uk/ (0808 801 1101).

YES – if you do this within 14 days it will be free, and we will just close our file. After 14 days there is a charge of £500 plus vat for every 6 months we have handled the claim – eg  so if you changed your mind in 15 months time that would be a charge of £1800.

We have a full complaints system and you have statutory rights to complain – these will be sent to you when you sign up and are available in the complaint section of the website. Or email us for further details

If you instruct us either when you are still employed or within 6 months of the date you left the Council also referred to as an intime Employment Tribunal claim and you win (which means a Tribunal and/or court awards you a payment of any kind or you accept an offer of payment from the employer to settle your claim), you will pay us a fee of 10% (plus VAT at the current rate) of the gross value plus interest of the award or payment including any pension arrears you are paid. You get the rest including any future pension benefits.  For example, if you had a gross award including interest of £10,000, our fee would be £1,000 plus VATThe net amount to you would depend on any further deductions from the gross amount such as tax, NI and pension contributions. If you lose you do not pay us anything.

Fee Example – Fee 10% (Employment Tribunal)

If you instruct us more than 6 months but less than 5 years after the date you left the Council also referred to as a out of time Sherriff Court Claim and you win (which means a Tribunal and/or court awards you a payment of any kind or you accept an offer of payment from the employer to settle your claim), you will pay us a fee of 20% (plus VAT at the current rate) of the gross value plus interest of the award or payment including any pension arrears you are paid. You get the rest including any future pension benefits.  For example, if you had a gross award including interest of £10,000, our fee would be £2,000 plus VATThe net amount to you would depend on any further deductions from the gross amount such as tax, NI and pension contributions. If you lose you do not pay us anything.

Fee Example 2 – Fee 20% (Sherriff’s Court)