Council workers demand fair pay and no privatisation
Matt Dobson reports
Over the course of the next week hundreds of council workers in Glasgow will be taking strike action against the Glasgow Labour council over fair pay and protesting against the planned privatisation of services.
Socialist Party Scotland and TUSC give our full support to the action and will be mobilising for the two lobbies of the council this week.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) staff against privatisation 1pm Wednesday 26th October
Striking janitors 1pm Thursday 27th October
Use the Social media hashtags #fairpay4shifts #justice4jannies to support the workers
Messages of support to enquiries@glasgowcityunison.org.uk
Community service staff
Workers in the GMB and Unison from the council’s Community Safety Glasgow (CSG) aleo will be out on strike again for fair shift payments, as they have for the last few weeks, this weekend.
Brian Smith, UNISON Glasgow Secretary and Benny Rankin, GMB Scotland Officer have written to the Labour administration and all Glasgow City Councillors making the following points “CSG are trying to pay their workers less than other workers in the Glasgow City Council Family for working in the evening, at night and at the weekend.
“The payment levels are far too low compared to those in other parts of the Glasgow City Council Family. For example, the nightshift payment in the council is almost double that which CSG intend to pay. The trade unions do not believe that the proposed payments adequately compensate workers who undertake shifts and our members have been left with no option other than to take strike action. Improving the above payments will not interfere with the CSG Job Evaluation Scheme on core pay.
“There is no “job evaluation science” to the level of the shift payments. CSG’s public statements on this matter are factually wrong. Our members are determined to secure acceptable shift payments and are continuing with their strike action, including this weekend. CSG now have a different shift payments scheme from that applied to the ALL other workers in the rest of the Glasgow City Council Family.
“This will be unhelpful to the council’s Transforming Glasgow agenda. Movement by CSG on the shift payments is therefore likely to benefit the council in the long run in relation to workforce planning. The review of Enforcement Services announced last week being a case in point.”
Jannies strike again
Unison school janitors are out on strike for five days in a dispute that saw action beginning on January 19th with a total of 24 days of strike action so far and a boycott of duties, as the Cordia Aleo still refuses to pay a Working Context and Demands Payment.
Fire and other safety checks in schools have not been carried out while the strikes have been taking place.
Glasgow City Council and its ALEOs pay structure awards payments to workers who undertake duties which are dirty, unpleasant, involve working outside on a regular basis or heavy lifting. There are five levels of annual WCD payment ranging from just over £500 to over £1000.
Brian Smith, Unison Glasgow Secretary, said: “Unison is very clear that school janitors meet the criteria to be awarded this payment.
“Cordia’s current position is that school janitors have the same working conditions “job score” as a senior council manager located in the front of the City Chambers who never leaves their office, gets wet, works outside, lifts anything heavy or cleans up sick.”
No privatisation
There is currently a strike ballot of ICT members with the union recommending a Yes to action against the council’s privatisation proposal for Information and Communication Technology provision. These plans represent a clear threat to jobs, terms and conditions, pensions and services.
Unison have produced a public report making the case for ICT services to remain in house. Mandy McDowall, UNISON regional organiser for Glasgow, said: “The council aren’t being either transparent or fair – instead they are rushing to send money out of the city. We have put together this report to show the feasibility of an in house provision of services and we are asking Councillors to think twice before going down the privatisation road.Our case isn’t being developed by consultants or privatisers – it’s built from the ground up by the people who do the job. The council need to stop this headlong rush to hand over public assets to people whose interest isn’t the people of Glasgow but only how much cash they can take out of the public purse.”
