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Glasgow equal pay discrimination set to run for almost three more years

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Vincent
Published date16 September 2021
A settlement, worth over £500m, was agreed with around 16,000 current and former employees in 2019, but a new pay scheme still needs to be introduced.

It is estimated that it could take until April 2024 to put the pay and grading system in place — and unions claim the cost, along with 5000 new claims, could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

They say it is "intolerable" low-paid, mainly female workers have to "wait a total of six years to get the monies they were due and are owed".

A council spokesman said all parties agreed other claims would be "dealt with at a later stage" at the time of the 2019 deal.

Councillors will get an update on a job evaluation process next week, with the results set to be used to create the new pay system.

A report reveals the evaluation process could be finished between December 2022 and June 2023, with modelling and costing of the pay scheme and consultation to follow.

There is an "optimistic" first new pay date of October 2023, but a "realistic" date of April 2024.

Wendy Dunsmore, regional officer at Unite, said: "Equal pay is still and will continue to be the biggest cost Glasgow City Council has to face.

"It also has to face the additional recurring costs of a fair and equitable pay and grading structure being agreed.

"An interim settlement up to 2018 was welcome but there now needs to be a further payment to all those who have outstanding claims as it is intolerable that low paid, predominantly women workers have to wait a total of six years to get the monies they were due and are owed."

Brian Smith, from Unison, said: "Until the new pay and grading scheme is implemented, thousands of women workers still experience pay discrimination every day they go to work.

"This is because the pay-outs made a couple of years ago only went up to March 2018, and there are also 5,000 new claims for pre-2018 still to be settled too."

He said talks are "not progressing as...

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