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Dumfries victory signals push to settle 104 more detriment cases

Bt Chris Bartter, Communications Officer

Five Dumfries and Galloway UNISON members are the latest to win their claims against the local government detriment regulations, as an Employment Tribunal backed them recently.

UNISON is now to put on more pressure on recalcitrant employers, to try and bring the saga to an end.

The five - David Hill, Malcolm McCormick, Ted Brown, Michael Trant and Chris Wybrew, all lost money because of the council's operation of the detriment regulations. The Tribunal upheld UNISON's case against the regulations, saying the provisions of Section 9 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994 protected an employee's contract after transfer - including their salary.

Marion Stewart, UNISON's Dumfries and Galloway Branch Secretary, said, "We are very pleased that what UNISON has said about the unfairness of the detriment regulations has been upheld by the Tribunal. We now want to get down to discussing the restoration of our members' gradings with the council."

104 more cases

This case follows a previous success for UNISON in another detriment case in Dundee. All-in-all some 591 Tribunal cases have been lodged by UNISON, after local government reorganisation.

487 of those have been, or are in the process of being, settled. Lucy Crone, UNISON's Scottish Legal Officer says that it's time for the other employers to settle too.

"I plan to write to all the employers of the 104 outstanding claimants, pointing out that they are now in a minority of councils who haven't settled, and that we haven't lost a detriment case at Tribunal. I will be suggesting that they settle quickly."