Glasgow's fire-and-rehire notices to 23,000 staff run out just before January's ban

A change in the law sets Glasgow's timetable. The council's letters went out at the end of September. A person close to the negotiations said the required 12-week notice period therefore expires shortly before fire-and-rehire becomes illegal in January under UK-wide changes to employment law ^[10]. Twelve weeks from 30 September is 23 December ^[16]. The same person said the unions were particularly aggrieved by "the blatant cynicism" of the plan ^[11]. This quarter the council decides whether to let the notices run. Next quarter, any council still without a settled pay structure loses this option ^[10].

In my view, the notices are a bargaining instrument, and their scope and handling show it. When Unison returned to the table at the start of the week, the plan was paused. When talks collapsed again midweek, council leader Ricky Bell floated the possibility that Unison members could still face fire-and-rehire as talks with GMB and Unite continued ^[4]. If the 11% facing cuts is a share of the 23,000 non-teaching staff, about 2,500 people would lose pay ^[20]. All 23,000 are under notice ^[1]. That is about nine staff under notice for every one facing a cut ^[20].

Bell's case is that the council has already paid for a settlement. "I'm deeply disappointed that, despite the council putting a further year of pay protection on the table, Unison has once again chosen not to put this offer to its members. Taken together with improvements made since August, this represents a package well over £100m in extra pay for our staff," he said in a statement ^[13]. He said some of Unison's remaining demands were "simply unworkable" ^[14]. Glasgow knows what unequal structures cost. In 2019 it agreed a payout of more than £500m to 8,000 workers, most of them women, who had suffered pay discrimination ^[15], an average of more than £62,500 each ^[17].

Those figures make the case for settling soon. Dismissing Unison members alone while the other two unions keep talking is a separate choice. Unison said it was taking advice on whether its members can lawfully be treated differently because of which union they belong to ^[5]. We do not know yet what that advice says. The January change ends fire-and-rehire under UK-wide rules ^[10]. Whether a union-by-union split is lawful in the weeks before then is the question on which Unison is taking advice ^[5].

The council is SNP-led ^[1], and the Scottish government has distanced itself. Jenny Gilruth, the deputy first minister, said "our position is that such a practice does not align with the principles and expected practice of fair work" ^[8]. Anthony Carroll, co-leader of the Glasgow Greens, said: "We are angry and shocked that the SNP administration moved to fire and rehire all 23,000 staff last week despite its own government's position" ^[7].

One union source placed Glasgow among many councils with the same unresolved problem. "We know equal pay is still an issue local authorities across Britain need to solve," the source said. "Council workers everywhere will surely be looking at what's happening here and feeling very worried about what might happen to them next." ^[19]