Glasgow Women Win Important BattleWomen workers of Glasgow City Council have won a historic battle over pay inequality. Thousands of women will now receive pay-outs that could total more than $863 million.
The council and the claimant group, represented by Action4Equality Scotland, Unison, GMB and Unite, announced that they have reached an agreement in principle to settle the thousands of pay claims. A strike held in October last year was the culmination of a twelve-year fight of these women in defence of their rights. Over 8,000 women struck work and 12,000 demonstrated in the streets in what was the biggest such strike over equal pay in British history. It therefore stands amongst the historic democratic successes of the workers' and women's movements, from the era of Red Clydeside a century ago to the Ford workers' strike in the 1960s. The long drawn-out battle has taken many complicated turns, in the course of which some 14,000 separate claims have been brought to the courts. It began in 2006 with the introduction of a new evaluation-based pay scheme, a result of the council's own workforce "pay and benefit review." The scheme had been introduced with the stated intention of dealing with the issue of pay inequality between women and men. However, in practice the scheme was set up such that it those on split shifts and irregular hours were paid less. This particularly affected those employed in homecare, cleaning, catering, schools and nurseries, which are female-dominated sectors, as opposed to those in predominantly male sectors such as waste collection. These arrangements entrenched inequality and in May 2017 the Court of Session ruled that the pay review discriminated against women. "These women are the lifeblood of Glasgow. They carry out vital roles across the city -- cleaning, caring, educating and looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our society. They are the cogs that keep our city turning, yet their roles remain chronically undervalued," McDowall added. "Strike action isn't a decision these women have taken lightly, but after months of empty promises they have been left with no choice," she said. The action and broad mobilization proved crucial in this success. Action4Equality's Stefan Cross said that it is since the strike that "there have been real and constructive negotiations," and GMB organizer Rhea Wolfson said: "This has been hard won and wouldn't have happened if the claimants hadn't taken decisive action last October. The strike succeeded in its aim of making the council take these claims seriously. It was also a spectacular event that put equal pay for low-paid women on the national agenda."
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Promises to settle claims lay
unfulfilled while the
council workers fought to defend their interests. Leading up to
the
October strike, Unison regional organizer Mandy McDowall said:
"It is a
modern-day scandal that nearly 50 years on from the Equal
Pay
Act being introduced, we find ourselves standing alongside
thousands of
women who are being discriminated against by one of the UK's
largest
councils."