Council and unions progress on Single Status

Jamie MacDonald • Published 17 Feb 2010 11:17 10 Comments

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TALKS between Clackmannanshire Council and the trade unions representing council employees over the implementation of Single Status pay have moved forward.

A meeting held last Wednesday has led to agreement over the appointment of the independent chair of the appeals panel and that the informal review stage should include a discussion of the line manager's review of the employees job description.

Around 28 per cent of staff are expected to see their wages drop as a result of the implementation of Single Status. Some employees have claimed their pay will be slashed by a quarter if the planned cuts are implemented.

Clackmannanshire's UNISON branch secretary Pam Robertson said the process of implementing Single Status was finally becoming more transparent following the talks.

Ms Robertson added, "The meeting was fairly constructive and we did get some of the things we had been asking for. Members were previously not allowed to have their job overview form and had been consistently denied that. They (the council) have now agreed to let us have the job overview.

"This will let our members see why they are getting their change forms and people have to know what they are up against before going in to the informal review stage."

She went on, "We are quite happy we can go forward and bring this back to being a transparent service. The trade unions have set up a series of surgeries for members and giving them advice on the informal review. Not everyone will win their informal review but we will help when it goes to appeal."

Since plans were announced for the implementation of Single Status pay workers have consistently accused the council of attempting to save money to address a shortfall in its budget.

This has been strenuously denied by those implementing the cuts with Janet Cadenhead stating she would resign her post as council leader if any connection was ever proven.

Structure

The council's view is that in September 2009, a structure was proposed which would have seen 15 per cent of staff 'red circled' with their pay going down, 45 per cent 'green', receiving more pay, and 40 per cent 'white', staying the same.

On 22 September, just before letters were sent out informing staff of their new pay and grade, the council was advised that the proposed structure failed the equality impact assessment. The structure was therefore withdrawn. In October, the council's budget position became clear.

In December a revised structure was endorsed by the independent equalities assessment. This structure saw 28 per cent of staff red circled, 25 per cent green and 47 per cent white. This is the structure now being implemented.

Ms Robertson remains sceptical, saying, "I'm not prepared to say that it is not about the budget. They have not produced a scrap of evidence to back that up.

"My understanding is that people are very, very angry about what is going on. Even those green circled are seeing their hourly rate going down. We are moving forward but it is understandable that people are not happy."

The possibility of industrial action is still there for council staff, however, it does appear unlikely to happen.

Ms Robertson said, "Strikes can happen, it has happened in other councils, but it doesn't seem to have worked. We would be better to sit down and try and reach agreement."

Ms Cadenhead said, "I welcome yesterday's constructive discussion and the focus on working together to implement Single Status.

"I was glad that those directly involved had the chance to demonstrate that changes to the pay and grading structure were necessary before the council's budget position became known.

"These changes were made on the advice of an independent equalities expert, who was present at the meeting and confirmed this was the case."

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

political posturing
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 15:50
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Ms Robertson: "Strikes can happen, it has happened in other councils, but it doesn't seem to have worked. We would be better to sit down and try and reach agreement."

Then what every council employee affected in all this needs to do is collectively walk out at mid-day one day and not return for the rest of the day. Get the national media involved in it all.

See how the Directors/Heads of Service/Chief Executive & Councillors (who seem to have all got on aboard the Marie Celeste recently) get on with the work themselves.

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council worker
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Feb 17, 15:50
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I don't know how Pam Robinson can say strikes have not worked in other councils does she not read the news letters Unison send out to its members?

It reported a victory when its members in Leeds went on strike mainly binmen and roadsweepers for 11 weeks , Leeds council re-graded their jobs for single-status and the low paid were losing thousands just like myself(£4,500thats what i am losing off £15,500)

Leeds council put them back on the same money they had before they re-graded them, a victory for Unison it does not fill me with confidence when Pam Robinson(Unison) comes out in the Advertiser with statements saying stikes don't work!

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council worker
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 15:55
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Sorry for error calling Pam Robertson(Pam Robinson) was in a hurry when posted comments!

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political posturing
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 15:59
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Fully agree "council worker"...

Pam Robertson has fairly filled me with confidence over UNISONs stance in all this.

What makes it even worse is that as a UNISON member I'm having to rely on the Alloa Advertiser to find out any information?

Has Ms Robertson got on board the Marie Celeste along with our esteemed councillors/chief executive/directors/heads of service?

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Redeployed
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 23:17
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As a unison member I dont have much faith in them at the moment, however I must agree that striking would not help. All it will do is leave us Council workers (who are already having to pay money back each month to reimburse the Council our 2 weeks in advance money) out of pocket and the Council pockets will be lined with all the money they will recoup from their workers being on strike.

There must be other ways we can hit the Council than striking!

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Political Observer
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Feb 18, 01:01
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I also note from the recently released budget papers that the cost of single status over the 3 year period of implementation is shown to total £3.186M. I find it strange that in the budget papers last year for setting the 09/10 budget the cost of single status over the 3 years was budgeted to be £5.5M. Take from that what you will.

Last year-

http://www.clacksweb.org.uk/document/meeting/127/294/2827.pdf

This year-

http://www.clacksweb.org.uk/document/meeting/127/339/3114.pdf

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Jimmy Lafferty
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Feb 28, 23:08
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Pam Robertson is as much good as a chocolate fireguard, to be honest like many council employees we feel the Union has let us down once again. Its diificult times for everyone regarding fiscal accountability, so when my wages get cut i wont be paying my Union fees no longer and will certainly not be paying my Council Tax untill i see some of those grossly overpaid Officials that are awash in many of the Coucils Umpteen Offices take a pay cut.Its a shame that the lower end of the pay scale employees who do a great deal of hard work for the pittance they get are being targeted once again. These are the people whoc lean our streets empty our bins, salt our roads,maintain our streets of the county, Im sure they could do it just as good without the need to have as many pen pushers as they do have present.The Councillors should wake up to the fact that this is just a small Council infact Scotlands smallest yet the amount of Officials is that of some of the largest in Scotland. This is a drain on the resources that are needed to make this Council Efficient. The wages bill for all those office workers must run into Millions, dread to think what the pension is like for those who blatantly get the promotion on the last year of employment so it benefits them in the Final salary pension..This is another thing its quite easy to see that goes on..Time to balance the books and show fai

ess, and of course lets see those who really deserve more get more..Front line workers..

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Jimmy Lafferty
Unregistered User
Feb 28, 23:09
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Pam Robertson is as much good as a chocolate fireguard, to be honest like many council employees we feel the Union has let us down once again. Its diificult times for everyone regarding fiscal accountability, so when my wages get cut i wont be paying my Union fees no longer and will certainly not be paying my Council Tax untill i see some of those grossly overpaid Officials that are awash in many of the Coucils Umpteen Offices take a pay cut.Its a shame that the lower end of the pay scale employees who do a great deal of hard work for the pittance they get are being targeted once again. These are the people whoc lean our streets empty our bins, salt our roads,maintain our streets of the county, Im sure they could do it just as good without the need to have as many pen pushers as they do have present.The Councillors should wake up to the fact that this is just a small Council infact Scotlands smallest yet the amount of Officials is that of some of the largest in Scotland. This is a drain on the resources that are needed to make this Council Efficient. The wages bill for all those office workers must run into Millions, dread to think what the pension is like for those who blatantly get the promotion on the last year of employment so it benefits them in the Final salary pension..This is another thing its quite easy to see that goes on..Time to balance the books and show fai

ess, and of course lets see those who really deserve more get more..Front line workers..

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******
Mar 4, 22:50
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melik
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Mar 4, 22:55
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Hello, I have recently been subject to the Single Status job evaluation for 'equality in pay' ha! ha! - someone must be 'aving a laff' I am currently doing my dissertation for Uni degree - good job really as i need to find a better paid job now! I do not really know what angle to approach my report and am finding it very difficult to find any real figures or evidence of this system working. THer is a lot of info about, but it is all regarding the implementation of Single Status. I wonder if anyone out there knows where i can find any - has there been any research on authorities who have already implemented this. I have to be careful what approach i take, if they feel that i am just out to highlight all the people that have lost money they will not give me permission to send out any surveys etc. I think i would like to try and work around the subjecct of 'Equality and equal pay' as i did find an article that was based around the concept that women in local authorities are not paid as much as the men - however the only ones that have been effected in my service are all women - mostly working mums.

Any suggestions very welcome.

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G Douglas
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May 28, 19:06
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I have recently went through the EP and M process with Aberdeen City Council. I was one of the groups that took a fairly significant drop in salary. But even worse is the council in Aberdeen are now trying to change the contract with regards to incriment scales (drop them to save 5.5 million on salaries) My point is that the ink hasn't even dried on the new EP and M contract and already our unions are in consultation with solicitors as the council are pushing to change our conditions already! The days of negotions with trade unions are gone and all Local Councils can do what they want nowadays. The only way to of made the implementation of equal pay would fair- it to of been a national agreement across the board. If required to put the point across to party leaders national strikes would of worked . We are not as unionised as we were years ago and that's the problem!

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