Colleagues
Please see below letter being issued tonight by first class post to all UNISON claimants (represented at court by Thomsons). Headline facts are that the Council has made their first offer, we have rejected it and intend to go back to tribunal next week. Please save any questions/issues for the meetings next week where we can have a fully informed, open conversation.
Dear UNISON Member
In June 2014 UNISON accepted North Lanarkshire Council’s invitation to negotiate full and final settlement of equal pay claims against the council. We had hoped to be writing to you before now with positive news, sadly the council’s approach has not met our expectations.
After four months of meetings we have yet to receive an individual compensation offer that would bring your claim to an end. On Tuesday 21st October, six days before the resumption of the tribunal hearing, we received a complex proposal through which the council intends to deliver equal pay. This proposal came with an insistence that – yet again – your tribunal claim should be suspended for another six months.
All your previous comments to the union make the position clear – we cannot agree to further unnecessary delay in the progress of your tribunal claim. UNISON members want two things from this campaign – progress in the legal action and information on what’s going on. The council says you can have one, but not the other. We disagree.
We will negotiate for equal pay with the council at any time, regardless of what’s happening in the Employment Tribunal. So we have written to the council urging them to remain in the discussion process. We will keep you informed of what happens and we will advise you of any settlement proposals where the individual outcome for you is clear. If we get an individual settlement offer that is reasonable, clear and specific to your job, we will suspend the litigation to let you have your say. Otherwise the claims go ahead as planned.
If you have questions or comments about the progress of the legal action we have arranged members meetings for 28th October and 30th October from 7.30 – 9.30pm in the Glo Centre, 78 Muir St, Motherwell, ML1 1BN. Branch and regional representatives from UNISON will be available at both meetings.
John Mooney
Branch Secretary