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By Liz S
It get’s worse.
The Glasgow Labour Group at Glasgow City Council posted this on the 20 August 2026:
“Glasgow Labour is clear: Equal Pay must be delivered, but it must be delivered fairly and with Glasgow’s workforce, not imposed upon them. Today we’re setting out the action we believe is needed to protect workers and secure a fair deal. Here’s our position”.
” We will fight any attempt to use Fire and Rehire against Glasgow Council workers”
“Equal pay should deliver justice for workers, not come at their expense”
“We want agreement not imposition. That’s why Glasgow Labour is calling for ACAS to be brought in to help resolve the outstanding issues between the council and trade unions and secure a fair , negotiated deal. There is still time to get this right.
“Glasgow Labour will stand up for the pay, terms and conditions of council workers”
“Thousands of workers are affected by these changes and some still face losing out”.
“We will not give the SNP administration a blank cheque to impose changes on the workforce”
“The Scottish government cannot stand on the sidelines. Glasgow Labour is demanding that the SNP government properly funds equal pay”
“Workers who have waited years for justice should not be asked to pay for it themselves through cuts to their wages, terms and conditions”.
Reading the above just proves that Labour, at all levels, are the worse for when it comes to shifting blame onto others for situations (i.e. scandalous behaviour) generated by them .
If you read the above post by Labour at Glasgow council (over and over again) you would be forgiven into (falsely) believing that their hands were clean in all of this as they seem to be also acting as if their collective consciences are clear in disputes on pay in Glasgow council.
(You also may be very very angry at their dishonesty and overall repeated S*** behaviour – a pattern developed and finely honed by them).
Latest news on this is that Glasgow City Council have now paused plans to fire and rehire 23,000 staff following online talks between the council and three trade unions, chaired by Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth.
Apparently it was reported that “Both the GMB and Unite unions were in favour of balloting their members over the new proposed pay structure, and said they had secured an extra £110m to be added into the salary structure” however it appear that “Unison said the extra funding was for “assimilation and arrears”, and would not help the staff facing wage cuts”.
Labour now holders of the Brass neck champions of the world, I mean come on !
Liz S
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My job title in my last job from which I retired was Area Personnel Adviser (now redesignated Area HR Adviser). I was involved in discussion with union full time officers, staff affected, and solicitors who were paid by the Highland Council to provide independent legal advice to staff who asked for it. Many did.
The background to this was changing the terms and conditions of all staff from professionals and workers into just ‘staff’. This meant that job descriptions were scrutinised through a ‘job evaluation scheme’. The intention was to pay people fairly for ‘jobs of equal value’ according to the duties they performed. This intention was met and all appeals of the findings of the system were dealt with, fairly. Highland Council paid around £13 million pounds in arrears. The system works.
Before this the Labour Party in Scotland left COSLA, an organisation they had created. Labour councils fought job evaluation and equal pay.
You already know that Labour fought the women through the courts to prevent equal pay settlements in Glasgow. Highland Council paid the arrears in accordance with the new conditions of service in ‘the red book’.
What faces the Labour party in Glasgow and the Labour-affiliated-unions-in-Glasgow is going before an Employment Tribunal to make the case that equal pay is all wrong, and women should be paid unequally.
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It’d be great if you could flesh this out a bit for a full post?
Send to talkingupreminders@gmail.com
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The problem is finding the time! I am leafletting for an SNP candidate in a by-election tomorrow. I would like to do this but I will need to find the space to make it a good article.
I will commit to ‘getting on with it’ though.
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More brass neck from Labour and this time from the Labour MP Brian Leishman .
Leishman who in the past, together with Anas Sarwar, campaigned in 2024 in the UK GE when he and Sarwar were both promising (in what turned out to be an empty promise) that “a Labour government would step in, keep Grangemouth working, and invest hundreds of millions into the site’s transition”.
Labour won the 2024 UK GE.
Grangemouth Oil Refinery was not saved and so over 400 workers lost their jobs.
Then when Sarwar was challenged as to why the Refinery was not saved, he stated that they, Labour, could not intervene directly because it, the Refinery, was operated by a privately owned company.
That’s the same “privately owned company” that was seemingly not a concern for either Sarwar or Leishman when they were both canvassing in 2024 and pledging that the Refinery (and so all jobs there) would be saved by Labour HQ if they were elected as the next UK government.
Leishman posted this today:
“The SNP and Greens are no friend to workers. 23,000 workers in Glasgow are to be the victims of the biggest fire and rehire in British history. Shame on the SNP/Greens for this. Utterly indefensible. The SNP assault on workers and services local councils provide continues”.
Really ?
I think we all know Labour’s history with certain workers within Scotland, like say the Glasgow female council workers and more recently the workers at Grangemouth Oil Refinery , but unfortunately Labour MP’s like Brian Leishman seem to have no shame in respect to past shocking behaviour as he prefers to cry out #SNPBAD (yet again in deflection mode as a typical Labour chancer).
In fact what Labour did to both sets of the above workers proves that they are most definitely “no friends to workers” as Labour’s actions were “utterly indefensible“.
Labour still trying to get away with “Do as I say not as I do” hoping that the public have very poor memories and so then have forgotten how Labour treat workers , especially in Scotland.
Leishman still clutching at (any) straws to try to keep his job as Labour MP for Alloa & Grangemouth come the next UK GE.
It is really nauseating how shameless Labour politicians, at all levels, are.
Fortunately female workers at Glasgow council impacted by the former Labour council in Glasgow and also workers at Grangemouth Oil Refinery all should surely know the duplicity at play just now by Labour. (as will all of their friends, family members , neighbours and their communities).
Vote Labour and you get betrayed , just ask some of the workers in Scotland who in the past may have been taken in by what turned out to be nothing more than Labour’s empty promises ( all just to undeservedly win an election).
Liz S
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Old News – Jackie Baillie has personally held the brass neck championship of the worlds since the day she got into Holyrood.
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It is frankly remarkable that in its multiple lengthy articles on the BBC News website in recent days, BBC Scotland’s journalists have avoided providing any reference to the origin story regarding Glasgow City Council’s predicament over changing staff terms and conditions.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of ‘fire and rehire’ as a process, its proposed abolition in Westminster legislation for the whole UK prompted warnings last year from the Local Government Association in England: ‘Councils issue warning over removal of ‘fire and rehire’ without replacement mechanism for making contractual changes’ (Feb 4, .2025).
Source: https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/workforce-and-hr-support/employment-relations/consultations-employment-law-reforms-25
The LGA states: ‘The use of fire and rehire is rare in councils to date is rare (sic). In the event it is a tactic to be employed it should be treated as a last resort. The reason for making such changes will typically be driven by the pressing need to address, for example, equal pay and equality issues though the introduction of a new pay and grading system, or as a consequence of factors outside the control of the employer, such as need to implement changes in the way that vital public services need to be delivered or local government reorganisation. (my emphasis)
‘Councils typically recognise trade unions for collective bargaining purposes and so terms and conditions in councils will normally be collectively agreed with unions. Therefore, where changes are required, councils will always seek to make them through agreement with recognised trade unions. Extensive efforts will be made to do that, involving often lengthy consultations processes with unions and employees, in some cases with Acas involvement.’
The SNP-led Council has been trying to negotiate a solution for many years!
The LGA statement goes on: ‘If agreement to the changes cannot be obtained through agreement with the union/s, then councils might consider whether agreement could be obtained directly with individuals. However, that carries risks, particularly in terms of s.145B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, which makes it unlawful for employers to bypass the union by offering new terms and conditions directly to employees who are union members.
‘Therefore, councils approach the option of fire and rehire with great care and will make great efforts to avoid using it. Nevertheless, in limited circumstances, it may be the only option left if one or more trade unions refuse to reach agreement to changes.
‘Removal of the possibility of fire and rehire, without a replacement mechanism for making contractual changes, could discourage trade unions from engaging in meaningful negotiation around proposed changes leading to the retention of working practices. It could also stymie agreements reached with some trade unions, who may represent the majority of employees, because of the action of another union that may refuse to reach an agreement.’
So much of this seems pertinent to the issues – the dilemmas – the present leadership of Glasgow City Council is facing due to an inheritance from a past Labour-led council and the complicity or inaction back then of certain trades unions. None of this wider context is provided by BBC Scotland!
Note: The Local Government Association (LGA)describes itself thus: “a cross-party organisation that is the national voice of local government. We work with councils and central government to support, promote and improve local government. The LGA covers every part of England and Wales (through the WLGA) and includes county and district councils, London boroughs, metropolitan and unitary councils.”
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To expose even further hypocrisy in respect to Labour who currently seem to be declaring that they, as a political party, would never ever behave like this , then let me remind them of this below:
Birmingham ” Bin strike a fire and rehire situation, says union”.
The BBC reported this on their website in a May 2025 article under a page for local English news (for the Birmingham area) in respect to what a Labour Council in Birmingham were accused of doing:
“The regrading of workers at the heart of the long-running Birmingham bin strike should be called out as “fire and rehire“, a union boss says.”
“The focus of the row is now on plans to downgrade the role of drivers, which the union said could cost some workers £8,000 a year”
“The city council said it needed to regrade drivers to ensure it complied with equal pay laws”
“Speaking before negotiations began on Thursday, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “They have said to these workers that the job that you do, the pay that you get, you either do that job now for £8,000 less or go”
“In any other situation we would be calling this out as fire and rehire. Equal pay does not mean you cut the pay of workers. It’s supposed to mean you push up the pay of women, if it’s commensurate with the role that men are doing.”
In a separate BBC article in April 2025 also under local English news for Birmingham:
“Unite confirmed reports about 200 drivers, mostly men, were told on Tuesday their jobs would be moved down from Grade 4 to Grade 3 under the new proposals”
“The union added driver team leaders were in a Grade 4 pay band which ran from £33,366 to £40,476“.
“This would be dropped to a Grade 3 pay band, which runs from £26,409 to £32,654, if the proposal goes ahead”.
“Every job at the Labour-run council is being reviewed as part of the authority’s efforts to avoid another equal pay crisis”.
(In 2024 , in the same area and involving the same council in Birmingham led by the same party, Labour, it was reported that an equal pay dispute related to claims that staff in female-dominated roles, such as teaching assistants, had historically been underpaid in relation to those in male-dominated positions. So the campaign for the 6,000 women was launched four years ago, the GMB union said, and talks restarted in November).
Birmingham council was under Labour majority control from 2012 to May 2026.
So much for what Michael Marra wrote on ‘X in respect to the minority SNP Glasgow council in that it was a:
“Despicable way to treat working people” and that it was “straight out the Tory playbook“.
Especially when his own Labour party in Birmingham intended to do the exact same thing – that as a situation is still unresolved in Birmingham as the bin men are still on strike in what has now been over 20 months !
As too is the hypocrisy of the Glasgow Labour Group who wrote on X that in relation to this situation the “Scottish government cannot stand on the sidelines”
Well in July 2025 FBU ( Fire Brigade Union) general secretary Steve Wright said in relation to the situation in Birmingham he:
“Liikened the current Labour government’s approach (under Keir Starmer) to Tony Blair’s cabinet in the 1990s, highlighting what he said was the latter’s failure to intervene in a dispute involving Liverpool dockers, as well as strikes by Hillingdon hospital staff and Magnet kitchen workers”.
In April 2025 it was reported that “Deputy (Labour) Prime Minister Angela Rayner has urged striking bin workers in Birmingham to accept a new deal to end the dispute – sparking an angry response from the head of the Unite union”.
It was also noted that “The Labour UK government has largely backed the Labour-run local authority over Unite“.
Also that “Angela Rayner was not the only member of the Labour government to get involved”
As “after a visit by a Labour MP , Jim McMahon , in his role as Minister for local government, Police officers changed their approach to policing a picket line at the Tyseley depot”.
( Then the “West Midlands Police shifted their tactics at the Tyseley (Atlas) depot picket line during the Birmingham bin strike, warning picketers that delaying bin lorries could constitute public order offences”).
“Unite members had previously been effective at delaying bin lorries from being deployed, but from 4 April they were told their actions could amount to public order offences“.
That is the real Labour party and not the pretend one that some within the Labour party here in Scotland are promoting as being the ‘Party for workers”.
“Do as we say and not as we do” that’s Labour yet again playing politics at the workers expense and also at all of our expense too.
(Also note that Labour , as a party, now always talk about the “working people and not the working class as Labour no longer want to be regarded as a party that wants to work for the working class people).
Liz S
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