THE FACTS ABOUT THE ONGOING DISPUTE BETWEEN BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL AND GMB MEMBERS

GMB’S response to councillor Alan Rudge’s comments in the Birmingham Mail – Tuesday 1^st April

Once again Councillor Rudge is using his old familiar tactic of drawing a veil of confusion over what is a very clear and transparent dispute.

Below are the facts concerning the ongoing problems between the joint Trade Unions and Birmingham City Council:

Ø       Birmingham City Council signed a national agreement some 10 years ago. That agreement committed them to combat sex discrimination in the way that they paid and treated their workforce.

Ø       For most of those 10 years the Council did little or nothing to bring themselves in line with the law and the agreement that they had signed.

Ø       Birmingham City Council is now paying ‘Lip Service’ to their lawful responsibilities and in addition, they are attempting to change their employee’s Contracts without agreement.

This is a clear case of ‘crisis management’ after years of neglect and the Council has made matters worse by trying to bully their workforce into accepting the new Contracts. Inferior Contracts, which reflect the very minimum amount of positive change that the Council think that they can get away with.

If Birmingham City Council had spent even part of the last 10 years preparing to fulfil its legal obligations to their workforce in treating them fairly, they would not now be faced with thousands of their workers taking legal action against them via their Trade Unions and this dispute would not have happened in the first place.

Unlike Councillor Rudge the GMB is prepared to face the truth and adhere to the Law. The GMB balloted its members under its legal obligations and in line with its rule book.

Ann Lafferty Regional Organiser for the GMB said: “Bullying the workforce is not the answer - Forcing new and inferior Contracts is not the answer - scare tactics are not the answer. Councillor Rudge should accept the trust placed in him by his electorate and sit down and engage in meaningful negotiations with the joint Trade Unions to resolve a problem that is of the Council’s own making”

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