By David Scott in Edinburgh
12th June 2009
A parliamentary committee has strongly criticised Scottish local authorities for ‘unacceptable’ delays in implementing an agreement on equal pay.
In a report published on June 10, the Scottish Parliament’s local government and communities committee said it was concerned that the Single Status Agreement reached in 1999 had still not been implemented across all local authorities.
During an inquiry into the issue, it was told that the delays had led to 35,000 cases being lodged with employment tribunals.
The MSPs called on councils, trade unions and lawyers to hold urgent talks on how to deal with equal pay in local government, saying there appeared to be no resolution in sight.
Committee convener Duncan McNeil said: ‘Quite frankly, the delays in implementing Single Status [agreements] are unacceptable and many of the problems we’re dealing with today could have been avoided through earlier resolution.
‘The current litigious situation is most regrettable. It has created caution in all parties that serves no-one well, least of all the claimants, who are mostly low-paid female workers.
He added: ‘While we recognise it is difficult, we firmly believe that every effort should be made to reach a negotiated settlement.’
Single status was an agreement between councils and the unions to harmonise manual and non-manual workers’ terms and conditions.
It was up to each of Scotland’s 32 councils to implement equal pay but ten years after the agreement was signed some councils have failed to put it into effect. The committee described the situation as ‘deeply regrettable’.
The public sector union, Unison, called on Finance Secretary John Swinney to ‘face up to the challenge of pay discrimination following the “dismay” voiced by the committee’.
But a Scottish Government spokesman said it was a matter for individual councils.
Michael Cook, employment spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, said: ‘All parties to the agreement – councils as employers and trade unions representing the workforce – have had to grapple with unprecedented technical, organisational and legal challenges which could not have been foreseen at the outset of the implementation process.’
