Equal Pay and Manual Workers

Haringey Council - aided and abetted by tame local union reps - is trying to hoodwink staff into believing that only manual workers can bring equal pay claims.

The council has recently paid £4 million in compensation to limited groups of female manual workers - on the basis that they've been much paid less than traditional male jobs (refuse drivers, gravediggers and suchlike) - for many years.

Now the council won't explain how these 'buy outs' have been calculated - nor will the unions - even though they have the information at their fingertips - since they were jointly responsible for negotiating these 'male only' bonus schemes.

But the propaganda now being put around - by managers and unions alike - is that other APT&C groups such as Teaching Assistants can't bring an equal pay claim - because they can't use the same manual worker comparators such as refuse drivers and gravediggers.

What a load of old tosh - equal pay is not restricted to manual workers - it's about the skills and responsibilities of your job.

Refuse Drivers - along with other relatively highly paid manual worker jobs - are perfectly valid comparators - the only test is whether there is a difference in pay and can that pay gap be justified - when comparing the skills and responsibilities of the respective male and female job.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense would say that a Teaching Assistant cannot be worth less than a Refuse Driver or a Gravedigger - and that's why these groups and many others are perfectly capable of pursuing an equal pay claim.

Action 4 Equality has achieved settlements for Teaching/Classroom Assistants in lots of other areas - for example in Glasgow - which is Scotland's largest council and a much bigger employer than Haringey.

So, don't listen to the Jeremiahs who tell you what you can't do - by pursuing an equal pay claim with Action 4 Equality - you have nothing to lose and plenty to gain!