WHEN Glasgow City Council vowed in January to negotiate an equal pay settlement rather than continue to fight current and former employees in the courts, it seemed that a legal dispute that had rumbled on for over a decade was finally going to be resolved.
Four months on and with no settlement offer agreed, however, it is looking increasingly likely that further litigation will ensue, with the claimants’ representatives preparing to take the matter back to the Employment Tribunal.
The problem, according to Action4Equality Scotland’s Stefan Cross QC - who is representing around 7,500 mostly female workers making a claim against the council - is that despite talks between the sides starting as far back as December, so far only the terms of reference for the negotiations have been agreed.
Read more: Glasgow City Council pension claims see equal pay bill soar to £1bn
As a result, Action4Equality as well as the GMB and Unison, which each represent around 2,000 Glasgow claimants, have engaged Daphne Romney QC of London set Cloisters as a precaution in case negotiations break down.
“We haven’t discussed a single substantive issue so we are hedging our bets,” Mr Cross said.
“We’d still like to have proper negotiations with the council but when you’re at meeting 12 and you still haven’t had a proper discussion you have to question whether that will work.
“What we don’t want to do is say let’s go to the tribunal then spend six or nine months getting ready to do that.
“We have to work on both fronts at the same time and that’s what we are doing.”
Last year, the Court of Session ruled that a Workforce Pay and Benefits Review conducted by the council over a decade ago favoured men by protecting bonuses only they had received and valuing their work more highly than that of female colleagues. It is thought that it could cost the local authority between £500 million and £1 billion to rectify.
Mr Cross said that if a negotiated settlement with the council cannot be agreed then every claim will have to be referred back to the Employment Tribunal to be determined on a case by case basis in a process would likely take many more years to complete. The claimants’ legal team would also seek a judge’s opinion on previously undiscussed matters such as part-time workers’ rights and holiday pay.
While the claimant side is also open to the possibility of mediation, from the council’s point of view negotiation is still the best way forward.
“We are committed to a process of negotiation – a process which was agreed with the claimants and their representatives and follows many years of legal debate,” a spokesman for the local authority said.
“You can choose to litigate or negotiate. The council has made a very clear decision that it wants to negotiate, which we believe provides the quickest route to a resolution.”
Read more: Glasgow City Council accused of perpetuating equal-pay discrimination
While Action4Equality, Unison and the GMB are negotiating collectively with the council, Unison regional manager Peter Hunter said he agreed that talks are preferable to further litigation.
“We are committed to winning pay equality by negotiation with the council,” he said. “More litigation is always an option but it is a last resort, primarily because we know that our traditional trade union approach gets quicker results.
“There will be no need for industrial action or litigation in the short term if we can agree three things with the council: the claimants need their compensation as soon as possible; we all need a new pay system that delivers equality for Glasgow; and the council must commit to providing the funding required to deliver pay equality and income security for all its workers.”
However, with the local authority this week rejecting a settlement offer put forward by the claimant side, further litigation is looking increasingly likely.
GMB regional organiser Hazel Nolan said: “We will have to go the Employment Tribunal to reach agreement on these issues. We’ll do that pretty soon - within the next few weeks.”
In the meantime, as both the GMB and Unison are consulting members on whether they would be willing to strike over equal pay, the council could be facing a summer not just of legal disputes but of industrial ones too.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel