Local Government and Communities Committee, 16 Sep 2009
Meeting date: Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Official Report
271KB pdf
Equal Pay
Item 5 is consideration of the Government's response to our report on equal pay in local government. No courses of action have been suggested. Do members have any comments on the Government's response?
The Government's response is positive in the sense that it gives us some more information about its capitalisation scheme to enable councils to settle historical equal pay back-pay claims, for which there are substantial liabilities. We need to find some way of settling those claims because the money is due to the employees concerned as a matter of law. There is no discretion on that, so the problem must be tackled. The way in which the capitalisation proposal has developed since we launched our inquiry is very instructive and is a positive outcome that should be welcomed.
On the other hand, although the Government is to be commended for dealing with the historical equal pay back-pay claims, I am very disappointed with the Government's rather laissez-faire attitude vis-à-vis its suggestion that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities—a body in which I rarely have any great confidence in progressing anything—will deal with current equal pay and single status claims. The recent strikes by City of Edinburgh Council's refuse collection workers go to the heart of the issues of equal pay and pay protection that the committee discussed during its inquiry. Those issues lie at the heart of the dispute that the people of this city witnessed. Although it is fair to say that the council took a robust approach in trying to hold the line so as not to engender still further problems by reaching a settlement that would trigger thousands of other claims, I am not convinced that councils generally have a grip on the problem. Therefore, I feel that the Government must take more of a role, given that the significant on-going cost pressures from the issue will impact significantly on employment levels and on the other council services that we have discussed today.
Plus marks on one side and "could do better" on the other is my view.
Those points are now on the record. Do other members have any comments?
Like David McLetchie, I retain the frustration that I had during our evidence sessions that there is no carrot and no stick to ensure that councils make progress on settling the equal pay claims. I fear that if we returned to the issue in five years, we would be in exactly the same position. I had hoped—perhaps I expect too much—that the Government's response might have indicated some way of putting in place some encouragement to speed up action on the issue, but that is not happening. I share David McLetchie's doubts about whether COSLA will be able to bring its member councils together to make that progress.
Although no recommendations have been made on our approach to the Government's response, I think that we should keep under review what progress is being made by local authorities and continue to look for ways to encourage all local authorities to make progress on the issue.
Perhaps the committee can keep an eye on the issue.