Leadership2 publishersAlso reported elsewhere2 min readPublished
Glasgow offers three years of pay protection to win a vote on its equal-pay regrading
Glasgow City Council dropped a fire-and-rehire threat to 23,000 staff by agreeing three years of pay protection with its unions. The equal-pay regrading still needs union members' votes, and for staff who lose under the new grades the deal delays the cut until the protection ends.
The Board Room · Leadership desk
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What happened
- Talks had collapsed when Unison refused to ballot members, and the council then warned its entire non-teaching workforce of dismissal and reappointment, many on worse terms.
- Under the scheme Unison walked away from, 11% of staff would have taken a cut in wages.
- The Scottish government took part in the talks alongside the council and the Unison, Unite and GMB unions.
- Unison will now ballot its members this month, after GMB and Unite agreed to put the deal to theirs.
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Why it matters
- cost With Bell ruling out further money, keeping losing staff whole for three years has to be funded from the same package that pays the increases others are owed, unless the Scottish government's help covers it.
- precedent Councils facing equal-pay regradings can cite Glasgow as a negotiated settlement, but it came after dismissal warnings and with central government help, so it is weaker evidence for an employer that has neither.
- constraint The protection has a fixed end date. For staff who lose under the new grades, the council's hardest conversation moves to the close of that three-year period.
- decision A Unison no vote would leave the council choosing again between more talks inside a package it says will not grow and the dismissal route it has just set aside.
I think the record supports a narrower claim than a clean win for negotiation. Glasgow's dismissal warnings went out at the end of last month [3] and drew a backlash from opposition parties, unions and council employees [4]. The three-year protection was agreed afterwards, on Monday [5]. The Guardian described the plan it replaced as one of the UK's biggest ever fire-and-rehire exercises [11].
The new grades still produce losers [13]. Applied to the 23,000 non-teaching staff, the 11% figure puts about 2,530 people on the losing side [19]. The scheme exists to settle historical and ongoing equal pay claims from female workers [6], so it has winners too. Chris Sermanni, Unison's Glasgow city branch secretary, described both groups [12]. "Thousands of workers are owed substantial and long-overdue increases and we want them to receive every penny," he said [12]. He went on: "At the same time, other workers face significant losses and some still don't even know their final outcome." [13]
Who pays for three years of protection is less clear. Council leader Ricky Bell emphasised there was no further money to come as part of the package [8], yet he thanked the Scottish government for additional support to help "unlock [the] agreement" [7]. Mandy McDowall, regional organiser for Unison Scotland, said: "The intervention of the Scottish government has helped create the space for further progress." [14] The reports do not say what form that support took.
The terms are also still moving. According to Unison, talks will continue on lower-paid workers, allowances, unevaluated jobs, equality impacts and the operation of the new pay model before members vote [15]. Bell said: "This is a strong and fair deal." [16] Sermanni described what members have won in narrower terms: "There's now a path for Unison members to give their verdict without the immediate threat of dismissal and re-engagement hanging over them." [17] The ballot will last four weeks, with a timeline to be laid out in the coming days [10].
What to watch
- Unison's ballot result, and whether GMB and Unite members also accept, once the four-week timetable is published.
- Any disclosure of what the Scottish government's support consisted of, which would show whether other councils could repeat the deal without it.
- Whether staff who do not yet know their outcome under the new grades receive final figures before voting closes.