UNISON Scotland believes that for too long Cooks and associated staff within the Scottish Health Service have been drastically undervalued and under paid.

UNISON is lodging a claim to alter this situation once and for all and on these pages you will find a Members Campiagn Pack along with a 'Food For Good' Charter.

UNISON is a progressive 21st century union with two thirds of our membership being women. Equality issues are of vital importance to UNISON members and this claim seeks to redress the discrimination that sees a female Chefs earn less than a male plumber does.

The NHS is potentially liable for a large number of equal pay claims, which when taken through the Employment Tribunal system are expensive and damaging to the organisation, staff and morale. It makes far more sense for the employer to work together with staff and UNISON to come to a mutually acceptable way forward.

The vocational qualifications required today to become a cook, the SVQ Levels 2 & 3, are at exactly the same level as those required by a plumber. Yet the difference in pay between the two in the NHS is stark, UNISON believes that gender is the central factor on this with almost exclusively male crafts being valued and rewarded higher than those that are not.