Timerunningouton£500m city council equal pay deal
Political Correspondent WORKERS pursuing a £500m equal pay claim against Glasgow City Council have warned the authority time is running out to settle the dispute.
Glasgow City Council’s City Administration Committee is being asked this week to decide on the course of action that could put an end to the lengthy legal battles over equal pay rulings.
The Evening Times revealed on Saturday how officers have asked councillors to make a decision on whether to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
GMB union, which represents many of the claimants, said it expects councillors to rejects options of continuing with the legal cases and instead vote for the option which is to continue negotiations with unions and claimants representatives towards settlements.
The SNP is expected to back the negotiation option and put an end to the legal battles.
However negotiations do not mean an immediate move to payouts and negotiating will move forward to decide which claims are settled and how much will be paid, as well as other issues on working practices and pay and grading.
The SNP administration has said the direction is from “litigation to negotiation”.
Labour councillors are expected to also back the move to negotiation at the committee tomorrow.
However, opposition leader Frank McAveety said there are serious questions requiring answers.
Frank McAveety said: “If the council is looking to find a settlement, how will it be funded and does it have an impact on jobs and services.”
Labour is angry at claims it done nothing on equal pay over the previous ten years.
Councillors point to pay outs of £85m and more on pay increases to address equal pay issues totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.
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