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UK Broadband

Glasgow City Council to sack and rehire more than 20,000 staff in pay row

Glasgow City Council will dismiss all its non-teaching staff and rehire them on new contracts from January 1 after talks with Unison broke down — in a row over ending discriminatory pay.

By James Calloway · · Updated · 2 min read

Glasgow City Council will dismiss all of its non-teaching staff — between 22,000 and 24,000 employees — and rehire them under new contracts after pay talks with Unison broke down, the Glasgow Times reports. The fire-and-rehire move, announced on September 24, is among the largest of its kind in UK local government history.

Letters will be sent to staff next week, with the new contracts taking effect on January 1. The council says it has “no option” after failing to agree a new pay and grading scheme with the joint trade unions. Teachers are excluded: they are covered by a national pay agreement with Cosla.

The new scheme is designed to replace a pay structure found to discriminate against workers — mainly women — after eight years of talks and around £770 million paid out in equal pay compensation. Under the proposals, around 63% of affected staff would see their pay rise and 26% would stay within their current grade, while 11% would see pay fall, by up to £11,500. The council says pay will rise or stay the same for 90% of staff, and pay protection for those losing out has been extended from six to 12 months.

The split between unions is stark. GMB and Unite were in favour of putting the deal to their members; Unison refused to ballot its members without giving a reason, prompting the council’s drastic move. Colin Edgar, the council’s director of communications, accused Unison of “betraying its members.”

Unison Scotland regional organiser Mandy McDowall hit back: “Glasgow City Council staff are not going to be bounced into a shoddy deal by bosses trying to bully them with arbitrary deadlines… Glasgow City Council risks being labelled a pariah employer if it refuses to negotiate in good faith with its staff.”

Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra condemned the move: “It beggars belief that the SNP council is threatening to railroad through fire and rehire before it is made illegal in this country by the UK Labour government… It may not break the letter of the law, but it certainly breaks the spirit of it.”

Sources

More on this topic: all UK Broadband stories

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