“Enough Is Enough!”

“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.

GMB Scotland Organiser Rhea Wolfson said:  This is a significant moment, not just in the long history of Glasgow’s equal pay scandal but in the fight back against institutionalised discrimination and sexism at work.

Thousands of women who have been robbed by their employer for years have sent a loud and clear message to this council and to the country: “Enough is enough! It’s time to deliver what we are owed.”  

GMB Scotland Organiser Hazel Nolan added: “Over the last ten months the joint claimant organisations have sat with council officials to try and start a process of negotiation that would deliver settlements for our members, but we have been stonewalled since day one.”

There is no confidence in this process among our women and without cast-iron guarantees from the council that meaningful negotiations can be revived then Glasgow is facing waves of industrial action across key services in the coming weeks and months.”

Ends

Contact: GMB Scotland Organiser Rhea Wolfson on 07976 022663, GMB Scotland Organiser Hazel Nolan on 07921 885786 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.