Glasgow council staff face pay cut in new equal pay deal

Glasgow City Council is set to impose pay cuts on workers under a new equal pay scheme.

The local authority has been paying out around £32m per year to workers who were underpaid as a result of a regime introduced under Labour in 2006.

The SNP pledged to resolve the long-running equal pay dispute when it won control of the local authority in 2017, but despite deals made with trade unions the saga has yet to conclude.

This week councillors will be asked to approve a new pay and conditions agreement that leaders believe can end the dispute.

However, it will mean pay cuts for 11 per cent of workers.

If approved, the changes will be phased in from April 2027.

Council leader Susan Aitken said: “This has been one of the most complex and challenging projects this or any other council has ever embarked on – and I’m incredibly grateful, not only for all of the hard work that has gone into getting us to this point, but for the resilience and the patience that so many of our women have shown over a number of years.

“It hasn’t been an easy road and it has taken longer than any of us would have liked, but this is their moment.

“Understandably, the settlements we made, starting in 2018, attract attention – and I don’t underestimate how difficult it was to not only make those deals, but pay for them in a way that was fair not only to thousands of women workers, but the rest of the city.

“However, this next step is really the crucial one in ending unequal pay – and it is also the biggest challenge.”

To go before the City Administration Committee on Thursday, the scheme has been drawn up with trade union involvement.

While 63 per cent of staff are expected to see earnings increase, pay will remain level for 26 per cent and 11 per cent will lose money.

A new system of allowances will be introduced, as will new rules on public holidays to standardise the system across teams.

As much as £770m has been paid out to thousands of former and current staff as a result of the botched 2006 deal.

It saw women in roles such as cleaning and catering paid up to £3 per hour less than male counterparts working in comparable jobs such as refuse collection, leading to strikes and court action.

No teaching staff are expected to lose income under the new deal, which follows a job evaluation process.

Aitken said: “I’m very conscious that, while this process is the end of a decades-long fight for equality for many of our staff, a smaller number are going to find it difficult.

“Where workers are facing a reduction in their earnings, that’s going to have a very real and very personal impact – and that’s something we all need to be mindful of.

“I’ve written to the chief executive to ask that we explore every possible mitigation, without compromising the integrity of the scheme.”

She added: “When I became leader in 2017, Glasgow was trying to outrun an equal pay problem that was not only always going to catch up with it, but was getting bigger and bigger every day.

“None of this has been easy, but I think it’s now generally accepted that the consequences of not stepping forward to negotiate in good faith would have been catastrophic.”