Birmingham Single Status

Many of our fellow workers and shop stewards would have us believe that the appalling single status pay cuts are the result of Tory/Lib dem policies. They are not. In Wolverhampton 20% of our fellow public servants are facing pay cuts. Wolvo is a Labour run council. Labour, Lib Dem and Tory councils up and down the country are cutting wages. This is a-political at a local level. But our shop stewards and unions have a vested interest in blaming it on the politicians of the hour. They don't want the spotlight of blame to fall on them - it is they who screwed us!

The agreement was signed in 1997 by local government employers and the trade unions. It followed a series of successful employment tribunals over equal pay. Shockingly, the agreement placed the burden of addressing this issue less on employers, and more on taking money off other workers (in many cases low paid themselves) to fund the agreement. It was a disgraceful agreement for the trade unions to sign, and one which contained a 'zero cost'. The Unions knew this, they knew no money had been promised by the then government to pay for this. They agreed to the staggering pay cuts we face today.

We should be asking questions of our Unions. Why did you agree to this shoddy agreement in full knowledge that this would bring massive pay cuts for some?

This article is copied directly from http://www.bobpiper.co.uk/2007/11/the_shame_of_single_status_rob.phpBob Piper is a Labour Councillor for Sandwell Council.

Ten years ago the local government employers and the trade unions struck a deal called the Single Status agreement. The aims of the agreement were, allegedly, to address the issue of pay discrimination in local government. From the employers' side this was an attempt to prevent employment tribunals that would have cost the local government employers billions of pounds in settlements to mostly low paid women workers who had traditionally been discriminated against in comparison to male workers in broadly similar positions. They paid male manual workers bonuses, they didn't pay female manual workers bonuses.

Shockingly, the agreement placed the burden of addressing this issue less on employers, and more on taking money off other workers (in many cases low paid themselves) to fund the agreement.

It was a disgraceful agreement for the trade unions to sign, and one which contained a 'zero cost' clause which left the employers rubbing their hands in glee. In fairness a lot of trade union branches, including my own at the time in Walsall, saw through this fiasco at the time and voted against the single status settlement, but sadly, the membership as a whole were duped by their union bureaucracies and the employers into thinking this was a good deal which would end pay discrimination, and they voted in favour of the agreement.

Despite having escaped by the skin of their teeth, Councils sat on their hands and did nothing to implement this agreement for the best part of ten years. They hoped it would just go away and over time pay structures would evolve and the problem would no longer exist... and they could forget about having to compensate those they had traditionally discriminated against. The unions, who knew the agreement in reality would upset their members who lost pay did the same... until ambulance chasing no-win no-fee solicitors decided to start banging cases in to tribunals. That is why councils up and down the country have started to panic.

That is why workers in local government throughout the country, many of whom are themselves low paid and female, are being asked to take pay cuts which can amount to thousands of pounds a year to pay for this shoddy compromise agreement.
This article is copied directly from http://www.bobpiper.co.uk/2007/11/the_shame_of_single_status_rob.phpBob Piper is a Labour Councillor for Sandwell Council.

This article is copied directly from the Longbridge Conservatives blog
Yesterday's [4th December] Council meeting consisted of false outrage and crocodile tears. Sir Albert Bore jumped on the passing pay & grading bandwagon, urged on by his trade union friends. Although the single status agreement was signed about 10 years ago the Labour Party did nothing about it. They looked at it, found it would be very difficult and tortuous and said " no thanks Guv. Now the deadline for sorting this out looms and Cllr Alan Rudge has worked mightily to get a scheme together which complies with the legal requirements of equal pay law and the single status agreement, using the national pay scales agreed, no demanded on, by the unions. There are some employees whose salary will drop due to them receiving a higher pay grade than the job calls for but even their salaries will be protected for 3 years, the maximum allowed by law.The unions will huff & puff but I think back to my days as a TGWU shop Steward and I don't think they will have enough support to be able to do a lot of damage...
This article is copied directly from the Longbridge Conservatives blog