Welcome to the Equal Pay Support Team

by Nicola Morris

Responding to Equal Pay issues has largely been a reactive duty and has created a massive amount of work for branch activists and members of staff who have been responsible for processing cases.

Some months ago a decision was taken at a national level that Equal Pay forms would come directly to the regions for processing. The form used for equal pay claims was revised at UK level and UNISONScotland's Pay Equality Group has undertaken a review of the system used in Scotland to process claims.

A new system is starting, which means:

· The onus will be on the member to gather data

· The branch role will now be to support & advise members

· UNISON Scotland secretaries have had their role re-focussed, and

· A Data Processing Team has been set up in Edinburgh to deal with bulk of administration

Scotland has been successful in gaining additional funding to support our equal pay work. The second bid provided funds to establish the data processing unit in Edinburgh and we are delighted to welcome six new colleagues to our work on Equal Pay - Ashia, Joanna, Karin, Maike and Sandie (based in Edinburgh) and Joy (based in Glasgow).

Together they form the Equal Pay Support Team and their role is to support branches, members and staff in the processing of equal pay claims. The Equal Pay Support Team facility is unique within UNISON and represents a considerable investment in our Equal Pay campaign in Scotland.

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