Overview: Equal Pay

“It's on the councils to resolve this, to get the full service back, rather than on Home Carers to accept low pay.” Kirsten Muat, GMB Scotland Organiser speaking to Good Morning Scotland about Home Carers across Scotland who are on strike for equal pay.

 

Work of Equal Value Deserves Equal Pay - 22 NOVEMBER 2023

Celebrating our reps leading campaigns for equal pay and vowed to continue the fight for fairness in the workplace.

Click on the image below to watch a clip from BBC Scotland's The Nine - Monday 6 November 2023

Women workers rally as fight for equal pay in Asda escalates - Click on the headline to read the full story.

Click on the image above or go to:  www.gmbscotland.org.uk/equal-pay-petition to sign GMB's petition and support GMB Scotland members in Tayside.

An update from GMB General Secretary Gary Smith about equal pay, setting out the commitments won by GMB representatives at Labour's National Policy Forum.

 

GMB Scotland Media Statement

Home carers in South Lanarkshire win £20m pay victory - Click on the headline to read the full story

GMB Scotland Media Statement

Equal Pay Agreement Reached Between Unions And Glasgow City Council - Click on the headline to read the full story

 

 

GMB Scotland Statement, Thursday 7 February 2019

 Glasgow Equal Pay – Celebration For Our Women, Reflection For Our Union

Gary Smith GMB Scotland Secretary

Today’s announcement on equal pay in Glasgow is a point of celebration for thousands of women and their families who were cheated and robbed over years by their employer. Some of the sums of money our members will receive will be life changing and they deserve every penny they will get.

Recently, we met over two hundred of our claimants at the Merchant’s House in the city centre. Speaking to our members and their families was a hugely emotional moment. I told our members that for GMB Scotland this settlement is a point of reflection and not celebration.

When I came to Scotland just over three years ago our union was being attacked by our own members in North Lanarkshire over equal pay, and we were quite rightly being called out in the national media for this too. Our union was badly let down by its previous solicitors but we let ourselves down because we stopped acting as a proper trade union should, by campaigning – in the workplace, in the media and on the streets.

By campaigning properly to defend our members’ interests, we managed to rectify the situation and secure full settlements for our members. But the situation in North Lanarkshire was dwarfed by the scale of the problem in Glasgow.  From the outset in Glasgow, I told our members we will never hide from our failings. We had forgotten how to fight for the people who pay our wages and depend on us for a fair deal in life. Apologising, I said that we couldn’t change the past but together we could change the future.

After three years of constant campaigning in solidarity with the joint claimant organisations, countless demonstrations, meetings, talks and through a historic strike which in the words of Stefan Cross QC, “changed everything”, we did just that.

We learned vital lessons about the collective power of an organised working-class movement. Thousands of low-paid workers came to understand their power and how to use their trade unions to exercise that power. They demanded and delivered an iconic and effective strike which captured the attention of the world. 

We were also reminded that when power is challenged you will be attacked. It was evident in the sneering contempt of the Scottish political establishment towards striking low-paid women; the attempted bullying and smearing of home carers by highly paid mandarins; the threats of Tory anti-trade union laws by the council on our union; and in the torrents of social media abuse and hate aimed at our employees.

The journey we have been on over the last few years will never be repeated. Never again will we tolerate a passive, defeatist culture and never again will we try to outsource our industrial responsibilities. Our opponents are learning too that we won’t be pushed about.

GMB Scotland is far better for this experience. It’s reminded us of our responsibility to give workers the confidence to organise under our banner. Equal pay has shown us how to campaign and fight again as a good trade union should.

 Ends

Visit our twitter feed @GMBScotOrg or Facebook /GMBScotland for up to date strike information. 

Strike Office: GMB Strike Office, Fountain House, 1 Woodside Crescent, G3 7UJ

If the FAQs in the link above do not answer your question or you would like more information, please call the GMB Strike Hotline: 07534 995 465

Glasgow Green #GlasgowWomensStrike

Download your I Support Glasgow Womens Strike Poster

Shipyard workers at Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow showing support for the #GlasgowWomensStrike!

This was the moment the ballot result was announced to some of the women affected at today's (Thursday 13 Septemebr 2018) demo outside Glasgow City Chambers.

“Enough Is Enough!” Home Care Staff To Strike Over Council’s Equal Pay Failure

Thousands of women employed by Cordia Services will take industrial action over the collapse of equal pay negotiations with Glasgow City Council (GCC).

GMB Scotland’s ballot of members delivering home care, school cleaning and catering services across Glasgow closed this afternoon (Thursday 13 September), returning an overwhelming 98 per cent support for strike action.

GMB has over 2,800 members in Cordia providing around the clock home care for 87,000 service users, as well as cleaning and catering services for schools and amenities across the city.

The trade union represents over 2,000 of an estimated 10,000 women with live second wave equal pay claims against GCC, with the overwhelming majority employed by the arms-length organisation.