Bromley - Carers Meeting

Bromley played host to a meeting of council Home Carers last week - the meeting was positive and well attended - and, as usual, people were amazed to learn the extent to which they have been kept in the dark about Single Status and Equal Pay.

Apparently, Bromley Council have not made any compensation offers to their employees - nor have they introduced a new non-discriminatory Job Evaluation (JE) scheme - as they promised to do 10 years ago.

So, the council is vulnerable to equal pay claims not just from the Home Carers - but also from a wide range of other council employees - including catering staff, classroom assistants and clerical workers.

Bizarrely, the local Unison branch secretary turned up at the meeting - along with a few union heavies - with the aim of intimidating the Home Carers who had actually been invited to attend.

Thankfully, the women gave the Unison reps short shrift - they demanded to know why the unions hadn't been holding their own meetings about equal pay and keeping members properly informed.

The women then they took a unanimous vote and told the union goons to sling their hook - which they did with their tails firmly between their legs.

So, the moral of the story is don't take any lessons from union officials who have sat on their lazy backsides for the past 10 years - in far too many areas the unions are part of the establishment - part of the problem - and not part of the solution when it comes to equal pay.