Luton Equal Pay 2010
Luton Borough Council in light of recent case law and the lodging of potential equal pay claims by Unison and GMB members, finally saw sense and sought to settle not only those claims lodged in the tribunal, but any potential claim for equal pay it found after an extensive trawl of its workforce.
For some staff, such as those in the Building Trade services it meant a downward equalisation, but mitigated by compensation, however through a scheme established by the previous labour government the authority applied for, and was successful in securing 15 million pounds via the capitalisation process.
12 months of extensive negotiation led by unison, but working with colleagues from the other two staff side unions, with support from our equal pay team and Caroline Underhill of Thompsons led to hundreds of staff receiving settlements proposals via COT 3 agreements brokered by ACAS. It should be mentioned that although we led the negotiations as the largest Trade Union within the authority, we worked very closely with the Regional Organiser of the GMB, this was clearly problematic for the employer, but very useful when it came to talking to thompsons, as both unions use the same solicitor.
Nearly 600 unison members have accepted the offers, many receiving 4 figure tax free payments, some got to five figures, a few got three.
We look forward to the settlement process being taken forward into the authorities schools, and the commencement of a complete review of the single status agreement
Finally thanks should go to our recently retired colleague Ian Pointon, who was involved in the original single status deal, and started the process which led to settlement.
Phil Gooden
Regional Officer
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