Glasgow’s equal pay battle set to re-erupt
By Matt Dobson
Three years ago this month – October 23-24, 2018 – saw the heroic 48-hour mass strike for equal pay.
8,000 Glasgow council workers organised by Unison and the GMB took the action. The majority female workforce had been underpaid for decades by successive Labour and SNP administrations.
Following the strike, a famous victory and £500 million in compensation for years of unequal pay was secured.
As Brian Smith, the Glasgow City Unison branch secretary – the union branch that helped lead the equal pay struggle – said in February 2019: “The deal that has been agreed represents a huge transfer of wealth to working class families in the city, and as such represents a seminal victory for the workforce. A victory that would not have been achieved without the marvellous 48-hour strike last October.”
The action by Unison and the GMB unions received international coverage and was seen as a massive victory. It brought a new layer of activists into the local authority trade unions, many of whom become reps and stewards.
Walkouts by mainly male bin workers who took ‘illegal’ solidarity action were also a feature of the history-making action.
The militant strike brought the Glasgow SNP-run council administration to the table to agree a deal, in early 2019, when faced with the threat of another strike.
betrayal
However, the third anniversary of the equal pay uprising is been marked by a betrayal from the ruling council administration.
Despite using many public opportunities to say she settled the historic dispute, the SNP council leader Susan Aitken’s administration still has substantial outstanding equal pay claims it has not settled, running into thousands of individual claims.
The council is now also attempting to renege on the 2019 deal by excluding substantial sections of the workforce from compensation for unequal pay pre and post-2018. Moreover, the promised new pay and grading system, the council says, it cannot implement until 2024.
Glasgow City Unison made the following public statement below on 1 October, stating their intention to organise members to ballot for strike action.
“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 behaviour.
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.”
Socialist Party Scotland, whose members play a leading role in Glasgow City Unison, give our full solidarity to council workers and their trade unions.
This equal pay betrayal makes a mockery of leading SNP politicians claims of standing for ‘fair work’ and against gender discrimination. The overwhelming majority of the staff involved also worked throughout the pandemic maintaining the delivery of essential services
It is yet another example of the SNP’s anti-trade union and anti-worker approach. Recent examples include the disputes with the RMT trade union on the railways and the paltry disputed pay offer – effectively a pay cut – this year for local government workers.
It’s quite clear the SNP administration is trying to cut the cost of its equal pay bill by making low paid, primarily working class women pay the price.
We are also also likely to see the council try to implement yet another cuts budget in the next few months rather than fighting for more resources for the city from Holyrood and Westminster.
It’s way beyond time we elected councillors prepared to stand on the side of workers and refuse to carry out cuts.
