Tuesday, 23rd April, 2013
‘Good case’ to challenge ‘unfair’ encouragement
Word has reached JW that momentum is gathering behind union lawyers who believe the council’s use of hardship payments and inducements as part of its pay and grading exercise was unlawful.
Until as recently as last Tuesday, staff who had yet to decide whether to accept their new pay grades were being advised by Unison not to sign up, but the union’s message has since changed – and its members are now being advised to sign.
It is not known how many remain unsigned, but there aren’t many. However, Unison is keen to stress that this change of advice is not a change of heart.
Unison believes that inducements offered to council employees were ‘unfair,’ and are open to legal challenge, and that their revised advice for members to sign-up “…should not be seen as a surrender, far from it.”
In a recent memo distributed by the Pembrokeshire branch, its members are told that legal advisors at Unison’s Head Office have informed the county branch that a ‘good case’ exists for a legal challenge at an employment tribunal over the ‘inducements,’ which it claims were designed to “‘encourage’ employees to sign up to new pay and conditions under duress.”
Further advice is to be given to the Pembrokeshire branch and its members shortly, and members were advised that PCC lawyers were to be contacted as a matter of urgency.
11 Comments...
Have your say...
Check out and 'like' my Facebook page ↴
Recent posts…
Yet again money being spent on lawyers. Under the freedom of information it would be interesting to see how much money is being spent on legal costs and compensation. It seems that the regrading process that was approved is flawed. Who is responsible for this judgement, and have some sympathy for the affected staff.
Welshman, why not put in an FOIA request if you want to know?
Thank you Dave Edwards.
Good evening, I was wondering Welshman, what compensation would there be at this stage?
For Jacob, as an elected member and therefore part of the ‘corporate whole’ (no sniggering!) can you not add a little about PCC’s response to the potential union ‘challenge’. I’m also suffering from a bout of ‘Wallyness’ again and cannot follow why the union would now advise members to sign up to something they are simultaneously claiming can be challenged in law.
Something doesn’t quite stack up for me…Can you help? Perhaps, as usual, I am misunderstanding something?
The council’s ‘response’ to this can be seen on the Western Telegraph’s website. Basically “wait until we hear further before you hear further.”
http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/county/10376679.Unison_plans_legal_challenge_over_controversial_Pembrokeshire_County_Council_staff_pay_review/
I would assume the union advice about signing up is that the inducements can’t be challenged unless the offers they were sweetening have been accepted. Also, which looks better, a union telling its members to ‘accept and challenge later,’ or ‘refuse and be sacked and re-apply for your old jobs.’ The former has been strongly encouraged by the the council through the inducements.
The memo to Unison members says “Our lawyers will be contacting the employer’s lawyers as a matter of urgency, as they are aware of the tight time scale.”
The Western Telegraph article confirms (through Vic Dennis) that the tight timeframe is a reference to the window available for the lodging of employment tribunal claims that could decide whether the inducements were unlawful.
Another fine mess we’ve gotten into.
Hi HR Wally, my understanding is that hardship payments have already been paid out. In addition to this the cost of defending the Unison claim plus the potential unfair dismissal could cost us a serious amount of money.
We should all be concerned that the current leadership/management at PCC is wasting a lot of money and will lead to further cuts in our services. I support all the employees that are affected and I do not work for the council.
My understanding is that there were/are two pay evaluations/agreements going on.
One is for equal pay dating from 1990s legislation which required Councils to agree equal pay for men and women. The Council’s scheme, one of the last in Wales, was put in place last year. This was put to staff on a take it or leave it basis and was paid on the basis of a compensation payment rather than as a back dated pay award. I understand that this avoided the Council having to pay statutory employer’s contributions. The council has received un-hypothecated grant from Welsh government for the cost of this award – about £11m to £12m paid. It used some of this to meet the cost of increased care home fees last year. Disputes/claims about these settlements across all councils are on-going as required by the Courts.
The second one is the current equal pay and grading scheme. I don’t think this has been funded by WG, other than by an uplift in Rate Support Grant if at all. About three Personnel Directors have been in post while this has been put together.
I don’t think councillors have any statutory role in agreeing what staff are paid, other than the chief officer and directors. Pay scales are determined by National agreement but where staff are placed in these is for local councils. The Chief Executive or Head of paid service has responsibility for pay arrangements.
I understand he may submit a report informing council of the arrangements he puts in place. You might think that councillors would at least be interested in what these arrangements will cost us, but the budget reports do not mention amounts and councillors do not seem to ask despite the intense scrutiny of the annual budget. We do not know the wage/salary bill for the council, such an analysis is not provided in the annual budget or any reports to council.
If Cabinet supports a fair pay policy for council staff below the minimum wage, why didn’t it require officers to submit proposals at each annual budget so that the position could be openly considered as a budget option?
What chance is there of rate payers ever getting to know what we are paying our staff? One budget cut target this year is for £400,000 to be met by “vacancy management”. What has happened to “Team Pembrokeshire”?
Can anybody please add to or correct any of this?
It is just all beyond belief. What has happened to democracy…not that I suppose there ever has been real democracy but these days when I read the headlines and letters from people it seems to me that we have gone back to the dark ages of serfdom where anyone who stands up for what they believe is squashed under foot.
I have another axe to grind with PCC but not here, but this to me is exactly the sort of tactics I would expect from PCC. They need to move forward into the 20th century and realise that their wealth is in the workforce and so start treating them with value rather than to trample all over them.
Also the tactic of wait until we hear further is just a delaying tactic while they work out what they are going to do…therefore there will be no consultation period or dialogue just a diktat.
At least I get to brush up on my maths on this website! Joke! 🙂
The wife who was bullied into signing received her hardship payment this week…less TAX!!! Her friend was heading for £3k but had £1k taken off. Strange, doesn’t seem to be a hardship payment, just a tax earner!