NLC News (13/12/14)
A kind reader from North Lanarkshire has sent me a copy of a press release issued by the SNP in connection with the ongoing equal pay dispute.
What appears to be happening is that a small group of senior councillors and chief officials are running the show, while keeping everyone else in the dark including opposition SNP councillors and backbench Labour councillors.
Which is completely outrageous if you ask me, because effectively the same group of people who got North Lanarkshire Council into this mess are still in charge today and they have a vested interest in sweeping things under the carpet rather than bringing all the facts out into the open.
I have yet to hear a critical word about the Council's behaviour from any Labour politician in North Lanarkshire, by the way, but if that changes, if any Labour MP or MSP does decide to stand up and speak out, then I'll report what they have to say - right here on the blog site.
Constituency MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth Jamie Hepburn has today expressed concern about the apparent lack of progress by North Lanarkshire Council in settling outstanding Equal Pay claims by council workers.
In a secret session of the NLC Policy and Resources Committee on Thursday 4th December 2014 councillors received their first report on the equal pay dispute since June.
SNP group leader Councillor David Stocks stated:
“The papers contained little real, hard information and SNP councillors were disappointed by the lack of real answers to questions we asked. The papers even stated that was the first such equal pay report to councillors since last June.”
“It’s the same old veil of secrecy, with only a select few knowing what’s going on on the Council side, with 90% of elected Councillors kept in the dark.”
Commenting Mr Hepburn said:
“This is a matter I wrote to NLC about in June and I still await a substantive reply from the council. I have once again written to the Chief Executive for an update on the dispute.”
“I am most concerned with the apparent lack of transparency being shown over this issue. I understand that it is over ten years since the first assessments recommending equal pay were carried out and any further delay gives the impression that the council are prevaricating over the settlement of the dispute.”
ENDS
