Single status came into being in approximately 1978 but due to council manipulation and weakness on the part of the trade unions, it was never implemented. Collectively the councils agreed to consider it ‘seriously’ but only if it was tied into job modernisation. This also stalled as the council saw this as a way to reduce the wages of the manual worker, which was, of course, unacceptable to the trade unions. What has now forced the issue is that a law firm saw that they could sue the council on behalf of groups of female workers. This resulted in the council having to pay large sums of money, averaging approximately £12000 to each female worker. Monies they should have had for approximately 11 years.
Now, to balance the books the council have decided to slash the wages of lower paid manual workers by removing the bonuses of the refuse collection loaders. Presently the bonuses are £122.25 and which, with a basic pay of £222.27 per week, equals a weekly salary of £344.52 (£17915.04 per year); the council are proposing to replace this with a yearly salary of between £12605 and £14183 (£242.40-£272.75 weekly), a reduction of between £102.12 and £71.77 per week.
Another set of proposals for refuse collection would amount to an extra £1000 a year in pay, but with terms and conditions meaning that you could be expected to do almost any job in the council in extreme circumstances-all in the same day! The reason this has come about is the way the council has interpreted single status. It was meant to bring low paid female workers’ wages up, not bring other groups of workers into the realms of the low paid groups.
Letter from an Edinburgh Cleansing Worker
Dear Editor,
The reasons for the problems at the city of Edinburgh Council have been caused by the head of Human Resources, Mr Philip Barr, either being unable to function in the exact position he holds or mischief making by trying to implement single status in job modernisation at, I think you’ll find, the lowest cost, percentage wise, than any other council in Scotland. The budget given to the previous Labour administration and adopted by our new administration could not be sustained unless the low wage earners, who supplement their wage by bonuses, were to lose those bonuses.
Meanwhile the council refuses to put any money into infrastructure; ie showers, toilets, drinking water and safety. As a token gesture the council has offered courses on health and safety to some workers but they complain about workers taking too long to empty the bins when the correct hygiene rules are adhered to. The health and safety lapses could and have endangered the public.
The lack of investment in infrastructure, the low wages, differing terms and conditions would appear to be for the benefit of a private firm in making a take-over of the cleansing department more attractive to them, which goes against the bonus in Edinburgh District Council. This was demonstrated by Edinburgh Building Services where a firm called Pinnacle was paid over £3 million to ensure most of the work went to private companies, reducing the staff and changing the administration to make it look successful. They did the same with refuse collection, ploughing approximately £4.5 million into the sector, ignoring the conclusions of the Pinnacle report in the main part which may have cut the staff but increased wages within a budget.
By an Edinburgh Cleansing Worker
Socialist Appeal thanks this cleansing worker for his contribution.
The views of other workers involved in the dispute are very welcome.
