Argyll & Bute Council - Single Status?

[John S]

A simple question the councillors and union officials could answer would be- what is balance of this change below the managerial rates and what is the balance above managerial rates?

A migration of pay from frontline staff to managerial staff would not be in keeping with equalisation and would certainly not be good management practice in terms of developing service standards, staff moral and work ethic.

[SmithD]

Not sure if the councillors really know whats going on. I agree with Jillibabes, they are more interested in the people who were raised that those who dropped. I know of one instance that one person was raised by £7 a year! But then as was said there are others who are getting mega money!

I think the evaluation should have been done by line managers with a points scale not so broad as the one used. Then it will be more precise with the post.

But I think I will log off and start writing my appeal as there is only 5 weeks to go!!

[John S]

Make sure you speak to your union reps SmithD. In the meantime if there's anything that I can do to highlight this crazy situation, give me a shout, that goes for anyone affected; there's an election coming up, things can change.

[jinty]

I haven't met anyone yet who has been given a raise. To lose £200 a month is a huge drop and feels like Constructive Dismissal - who can remain with that kind of drop in wages and certain people are being targeted!! People have to act as one body - perhaps a petition to all employees, which I am sure would be signed by those who are in the White and Green circle also as no one wants to benefit at the expense of colleagues.

[SmithD]

There is a petition circulating.

We have been advised that appeals are best discussed as a groups but submitted seperately. They can be reviewed as just written evidence or you can go up against a panel which we have been advised to do incase of missing information. Unions have also advised that they review your appeal before submitting it.

[oorly gourlay]

John S wrote

there's an election coming up, things can change.

John, my best wishes for when you get amongst them but I think that you will find that, even though McAskill has gone, his cohorts with the Cheshire cat grins are still very much in place. I have it on good authority from an
independant councillor (not local) that he and his buddies are delighted with the outcome of the process even though the Scottish Executive pumped an extra £2 million into their coffers to fund rises - what rises!

Several of us who post on this board are still waiting for the results from our lead authority and having been through two interviews on behalf of similarly placed staff, conducted by unqualified "job evaluators", I am worried. One was a school janitor and the other a social worker, who had no concept of my job who were seconded to the job evaluation team without any increase to their salaries. They actually bitched about this at the interview! To make matters worse, West Dumbartonshire Council has been named as one of the worst councils in Scotland.

Personally I am s*****g myself on the outcome of this and whether or not I win or lose, more likely lose, I am 100% behind the Argyll & Bute staff in any action that they take.

oorly

[Ship called Dignity]

Not the only one s******g themselves Oorly - while a similar post to mine goes unaffected in Argyll & Bute Council the same post, with same grade and pay, is reported to be facing a 20% wage cut in West Dunbartonshire Council where our posts could be evaluated from!!

[John S]

There is likely to be a motion brought by the SNP Group on the council in the coming weeks seeking a review of the employee grades who have suffered under the proposal and those who have benefited for comparison. And a comparison of this authority with other authorities who have implemented similar reviews. This can only progress of two thirds of councillors agree the motion.

The new council elected in May will be expected to implement the outcome of equal status (if this council agree to implement it) however if there is evidence that equal status is unfair (which, to me, is clearly the case and the SNP proposal will seek evidence for) the New council could have the authority to change the proposal. Funding would have to found which may mean a hike in council tax(funnily enough this is the first year in the last 10 this council has not increased council tax by above the rate of inflation)

I discussed this with our SNP councillors on Saturday - the picture is the same across the council, if enough pressure is brought to bare, particularly on those who support existing equal status proposal; which would seem to be the Lib Dems and Independent Group, then a decision could be postponed for this evidence - then the new council will have the decision to amend it. If not the proposal will be agreed by this council.

[kintyre 84]

Listened to Cllr McCaskill and James McLellan, Cheif Executive on Argyll FM on Wednesday. They are certainly not backing down in any way. As far as I can make out they are saying they did not get any funding to complete this Single Status process, so the money they needed to do this over the last 7 years is coming from the people who have had their salaries cut. Cllr McCaskill was adament that anyone unhappy with their re-grading should appeal against it - making it sound a simple, easy process!
I HAVE to appeal and after wading through the paper work which is written in some sort of foreign language, I have to justify what I do and try to get extra points against criteria such as knowledge, mental skill, communication etc. I then have to persuade a panel of 3 senior management that I deserve an extra point here and there. Forgive my cynicism, but if I get ONE extra point I can be upgraded (according to the model) - Is this their plan? In appeal they could, out of good grace , give me one extra point, making me feel as though I was winning. but if this happens the salary scale is still lower that I get now. I need 3 extra point to be put back up the existing grade amount. IF this were to happen I would then be the same grade as a senior staff member, so where does she stand? The whole system stinks! I hope I am making myself understood, it is all quite complicated to explain.
The bottom line is to get the process stopped! The chances of this seem unlikely . Its taken SEVEN years to get to this stage. I have heard that this pay model is only one of a choice of several. Perhaps our elected member can insist on another model being used. I don't know. I do know something is going on soon where Councillors can support a motion to review this and can only urge all of them to do so.
I have never been a politicaly minded person before but I will be watching carefully before this forthcoming election

[JEM]

I believe there's a list going round showing settlements reached by other councils for clerical workers.
The amount being offered by Argyll and Bute is easily the lowest in Scotland so far (£2000 + less).

[Kintyre Forum News]

Argyll and Bute Council has responded to Unison's plans of industrial action over single status.

A Council spokesperson said: "We have been informed that from a total of 1,762 Unison members, 27 per cent voted for industrial action and only four are planning to take strike action on Thursday 17th January. These figures do not show a high level of support for the action.
"We are disappointed that our commitment to deal with our obligations in terms of equal pay and the fairest settlement we could provide within the funding resources available seems not to have been accepted by the local branch of Unison. However, we will do everything possible to ensure that public services are not affected."

[SmithD]

I'm in the Union and didn't know anything about a strike! I think most of the people who voted for a strike would've gone!