City chiefs back next step in combating equal pay issues

A NEW job evaluation scheme will be introduced to tackle ongoing equal pay issues at Glasgow City Council.

Councillors on the City Administration Committee have backed plans to deal with continuing equal pay liability.

The move follows last month’s decision to sign off an almost £550m deal, which secured pay-outs for nearly 16,000 current and former council employees.

The job evaluation structure, which will produce a ranked order of council jobs, will work alongside a new pay and grading system to combat pay inequality among current and future council staff.

This will replace the discredited Workforce Pay and Benefits System (WPBR), under which many employees, mainly women, were paid unfairly.

Councillor Michelle Ferns, City Convener for Workforce, said: “The main thrust of the job evaluation scheme is basically its equality proved from the beginning.

“It needs to be completed by April 2021 given there’s an ongoing liability under WPBR.”

Her report to councillors said when the pay and grading system, which will be considered by councillors at a future meeting, is rolled out it will be “free from any inequality or bias in terms of gender but, equally importantly, in terms of race, sexuality, religious belief, age and disability”.

The evaluation structure will have three categories: benchmark jobs, a sample of jobs used for evaluation purposes when developing the structure, generic jobs, covering a number of jobholders who do similar work, and unique jobs, which will need to be evaluated separately.

Job analysts will assess the roles before creating a rank order of jobs.

A council officer said: “A great number of employees will be concerned by job evaluation and understandably concerned about what it might mean for them and their livelihoods.

“I think that what we need to do is be as open and transparent as we can to reassure people.”

Councillor Kyle Thornton asked how much introducing the job evaluation structure would cost but the officer said it was impossible to say until work has started on the pay and grading system.