Opinion: Glasgow's council workers have waited 20 years for fair pay. 'No more money' cannot be the final word
Fixing a discriminatory pay scheme is the right thing to do. But a fix that leaves one in ten staff facing a cut of up to £11,500 is bound to leave people angry.
The Banqueting Hall at Glasgow City Chambers. File photo. · Photograph: Colin (CC BY-SA 4.0)
There is no question that Glasgow City Council's pay system needs to change. The 2006 scheme it is replacing discriminated against mainly female workers, and the city has already paid a heavy price, financially and morally, for that injustice. Getting it right this time matters.
But as thousands of staff vote on the new pay and grading structure, council leader Ricky Bell has drawn a firm line: there is no more money. Not from the council, and not from the Scottish Government.
We understand the pressure. Councils across Scotland are stretched to breaking point, and Glasgow has no magic money tree. Honesty about what can be afforded is better than false promises.
The people losing out
But it is worth being clear about what the new structure means for some workers. Around 11% of staff face a pay cut, with the biggest losses estimated at around £11,500 a year. For a family already struggling with the cost of living, that is not an abstract figure. It could be the difference between keeping up with the rent and falling behind.
The Scottish Government has already stepped in once, funding a longer period of pay protection for those losing out. That helps soften the blow, but protection runs out eventually. The question is what happens then.
Fire and rehire must stay off the table
When Labour's Rashid Hussain asked for an unequivocal commitment that the council would not dismiss and re-engage staff to impose the new structure, he did not get a clear yes or no. Mr Bell said his absolute commitment was to a collective agreement.
That is not quite the same thing. Fire and rehire is a brutal tactic, and the council has already agreed with unions that it is not needed. It should rule it out completely and publicly, whatever the outcome of the ballot.
Keep talking
If staff reject the deal, 'no more money' cannot simply be the end of the conversation. There are other things to negotiate: how long protection lasts, how people are supported into new roles, how grading appeals work and how the changes are phased in.
Glasgow has spent two decades trying to put right the pay injustice faced by its lowest-paid workers, most of them women. It would be a cruel irony if the solution created a new sense of unfairness. The council and the unions owe it to those workers to keep talking until they find an agreement both sides can stand behind.