Glasgow SNP-Green councillors vote to accept rotten proposals
Chris Sermanni, branch secretary Glasgow City UNISON (personal capacity)
On Thursday 20th August, Glasgow City Councillors who sit on the City Administration Committee (CAC) voted to accept proposals to introduce a new pay and grading system for workers in Glasgow City Council.
Trade unions in the city – UNISON, GMB and Unite – vehemently opposed these proposals, which council leaders claim “is the end of a decades-long fight for equality for many of our staff”. The council’s rotten package fails to deliver pay equality and is anything but the end of the fight.
The proposals were passed 13-9. The votes to pass were a combination of SNP and Scottish Green councillors. The Greens proposed an amendment that was accepted by the SNP, committing the council to ‘further scrutiny’.
In reality, this is a continuation of the Greens’ role in government at both local and Scottish level, assisting other parties to implement cuts. The Greens co-leaders, Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, assumed leadership of the party a year ago and were keen to play up their anti-austerity credentials, but it’s a case of meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses
Thousands of workers face an immediate pay cut, with some of those workers set to lose over £10,000. A last-minute intervention prior to the CAC meeting increased the offer of pay protection from 6 months to one year, but this will be scant consolation to those workers facing a financial cliff edge.
Fire and rehire
The council’s paper also explicitly outlines the threat of ‘fire and rehire’. They laughably suggest their preferred method of implementation is through collective agreement, but another option “could include dismissal of existing contracts and an offer of reengagement on revised terms and conditions”. During her tenure as first minister, Nicola Sturgeon referred to the practice of fire and rehire as ‘abhorrent’ and suggested she would outlaw the practice had employment law been a devolved matter.
Whilst the Starmer-led administration watered down the ERA to within an inch of its life, pandering to big business, it does contain further protection for workers against fire and rehire, but these measures are scheduled to be effective in January 2027. The council leadership are no doubt aware of the impending change in the law and are looking to rush through their implementation plans before this.
The council have also proposed an arrears payment calculation that seeks to compensate thousands of workers with a fraction of what they are owed. As part of the equal pay settlement, when the council was forced to pay hundreds of millions of pounds to predominantly low-paid women for wages robbed from them, an agreement was made with unions and lawyers to pay further compensation in the form of backdated wages from October 2023 to April 2027. Whilst the council claim their proposal covers this period, it comes nowhere near the real value of the wages stolen for this period.
The council are also implementing the scheme on a phased basis. This in effect means that 1 in 5 council workers will not be moved over to the new scheme in 2027. This in effect means that the council are blindly implementing a scheme where the outcomes for 20% of the workforce are unknown, putting workers at risk of significant detriment and potentially creating further equal pay comparators.
The SNP administration unbelievably sought to absolve themselves of any blame in relation to Glasgow’s historic gender pay shame claiming “It was a choice made by the administration at the time with the support of trade unions then”.
Even more disgracefully, they are refusing to approach the Scottish Government for financial assistance in relation to delivering pay justice in the city claiming “This is a Glasgow problem that was made in Glasgow”
Glasgow’s problem is the same as every single other local authority in Scotland; capitalist politicians in the Scottish Government have been content to pass on cuts for decades, with hundreds of millions of pounds stolen from the city’s budget.
Political cowardice
Blaming trade unions for the mess the council finds itself in smacks of anti-workerism. Refusing to approach the Scottish Government is an act of political cowardice. Whilst a Labour administration indeed oversaw the implementation of WBPR and disgracefully fought tooth and nail to defend it for years, that should not be used as cover to push through a half-baked package that risks repeating the mistakes of the past.
Workers in Glasgow will judge politicians in power at the City Chambers who have overseen the continued decline in the city at the ballot box next May. The need for fighting socialist politicians who will stand up for the interests of the working class has never been more urgent.
Whilst the package of proposals was rubber-stamped by councillors, trade unions have made it clear that the fight is only beginning. In the coming weeks, union members in the city will be consulted on the next steps in fighting the council’s rotten proposals.
