UPDATE ON JOB EVALUATION
Newsletter to be issued either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning giving the details about the payments of back pay for those whose pay have
gone up as a result of JE.
.    The helpline for queries about back pay will ONLY deal with that one issue.  It will be staffed by call handlers and backroom staff will deal with queries that need further investigation.
.    The deadline, of 31st July, for appeals to be sent by service directors to JE team was a target.  Not all services have been fully able to meet this deadline.  The deadline was set by the service directors themselves, but it was anticipated that it would be 'fluid'.  This should have no adverse effect on the process and the timescales involved within it. John Batchelor believes that the more work done at service level means that less work will require to be done by the JE team.
.    Equality Impact Assessment has gone out for consultation to an External Assessor.  It is hoped it will be back to the council before the resources committee meet on 19th August!!
.    Resources Committee meets on 19th August where they will consider the latest paper on Terms & Conditions.  This paper will be available on the internet shortly.
.    It was stress that the council is still working towards a collective agreement!!

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 25th August at 3 pm in Committee Room 4.

EQUAL PAY
As a union, UNISON has been at the forefront of campaigning for equal pay on behalf of our members across the country.   Highland Branch has undertaken a significant amount of work in supporting members with equal pay claims against Highland Council.   The branch has provided individual support as well as collective support at signing sessions undertaken by the Council through offers of compensation to female manual workers.   UNISON representatives attended all of the signing sessions to offer support and advice to members.   UNISON was the only union to do so.   Information from the Employment Tribunal shows that UNISON has lodged more equal pay claims on behalf of Highland Council employees than the other unions and ‘no win no fee’ combined!   UNISON was also the only union to challenge the Council over the imposition of a pay and grading model that, by the Council’s own information, proposed to widen the pay gap.
The union continues to campaign for equal pay on behalf of our members.   Claims are continuing to progress through the Employment Tribunal process, albeit painfully slowly.   Claims against the Council from all the claimant representatives are being considered by the Employment Tribunal through the same process and same hearings.   Assertions by another union that their members will get their claims heard before UNISON’s are not correct and are regrettably miss-informing employees.
With the imposition of the new pay and grading model by the Council, a potential time bar exists in taking claims to the Employment Tribunal.  
Any member who has not already submitted a claim by the beginning of August 2009 and hopes to claim back up to five years for pay inequality must act now as a matter of urgency.   Please contact Highland Branch to get support and a case form by 22 July 2009 in order to provide a reasonable period of time to assess and lodge your claim.   It is the responsibility of members to ensure that claims are submitted on time to the union in order for us to adequately assess the claim.
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(Archived News Items)

UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY HIGHLAND COUNCIL!

Unhappy Birthday for Highland Council Equal Pay Claimants UNISON, the public service union, is to take its campaign for pay equality direct to decision makers at Highland Council. 
Highland Council agreed to offer compensation to large numbers of their low paid women -workers who had been excluded from receiving bonus payments unlike their male comparators paid on the same grades.  In receiving compensation, each worker had to sign an agreement waiving their rights to bring claims to the Employment Tribunal (ET). However, these agreements expired on the 30 September 2006. 
A year on, the council has still to address the direct discrimination against these and other workers and is still paying bonus to men but not to large numbers of women on the same grade. A new pay and grading scheme is also still awaited as part of the Single Status Agreement. 
Liz MacKay, Branch Secretary of UNISON Highland Branch said  "UNISON was able to increase the level of compensation paid to many of our members and provided advice at all the signing sessions held by Highland Council. However, it is extremely disappointing that a year on, the discrimination which caused the council to pay out millions of pounds to low paid women workers still exists.  This situation is simply not acceptable to UNISON so we're taking our campaign directly to councillors, and in particular, the council administration in a bid to get the issue addressed". 
Regional Organiser for UNISON in the Highlands, Ken Matthews said, "UNISON has lodged hundreds of equal pay claims on behalf of a wide range of members at ET.  Every week, we're lodging further claims on behalf of existing and indeed, new members.  Our strategy has been consistently to try to negotiate a settlement on equal pay, but to use legal action if the negotiations don't succeed.  We are therefore calling on the councillors, and the administration to meet with UNISON so we can get this resolved. Our members are not prepared to wait any longer than they have to for pay that they are owed.  These low paid women are effectively subsidising the council.  Let's be clear, if we don't get a negotiated agreement, we will continue to pursue the council through the courts". 
UNISON has participated in talks between Highland Council and trades unions over a new single status agreement. Formal proposals are still awaited from the council on a new pay and grading scheme.  UNISON is calling on councillors to meet the union in order to seek a negotiated agreement on the settling of equal pay claims and on a new pay and grading scheme

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2008 LOCAL GOVERNMENT PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE CLAIM
The current pay award expires on 31^st March 2008 for those employed by Highland Council, the Assessors and the fire and Rescue Service currently covered by the APT&C or Manual pay scales i.e. those who are subject to job evaluation. Some other employers e.g. Inverness Leisure honour the local government settlement for their staff also.  The claim which has been agreed by the joint Trade Union Sides will be submitted to COSLA at the annual meeting on 13^th and 14^th November 2007.

The claim seeks:

·        That the settlement should run for a period of one (1) year with effect from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009.

·        An increase on all Spinal Column Points of £0.51835 per hour (The equivalent of £1.000 per annum) or 5% whichever is the greater.

·        An increase in annual leave entitlement by three days resulting in amending the first sentence in paragraph 7.3 of part 2 to read: “The minimum paid full annual leave entitlement is twenty three days.” (Excluding all Public Holidays)

·        An additional one day’s public holiday.

Separate claims are lodged for Chief Officers (principally the Chief Executive and Directors) whose pay award is also due on 1^st April 2008 and for craftworkers whose settlement is overdue. They will receive an award backdated to 1^st July 2007 and when more information is received it will be advised to these groups.

Pay claims will also be submitted for members employed by other organisations and consultation with them will take place as appropriate.

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