Cardiff council signed a thing years ago to give female workers equal pay, but for years they did not act on it (apart from executives who now "earn" around £100,000 each, male or female).
Legal action was threatened by unions, so the council has been calling in workers on short notice to get them to sign a waiver and take home a "substantial" cheque.
Some male workers were also in line for payments under Equal Opportunities law.
I called ref my Czech mate who used to work for them, but they tried to fob me off by saying he wasn't entitled, but I stuck to my guns.
Yesterday he got a whole wad of papers from them, preceded by a sheet telling him how much he would get (£406).
But then I read through the papers carefully:
They are offering only 50% of entitlement;
Failure to sign TODAY means his only recourse would be industrial tribunal (and that could take years);
They had him down as working a 10-hour week, when in fact he worked 32.5 hours except for his last month when the council dropped him to 20 hours (and so he left to get decent income);
They also had him working for them for only 6 weeks, and not 10 months as he had.
Using their payment chart I found that he could draw a cheque for £814 based on his 32.5 hour week, but when I called earlier they said they only counted the LAST contracted hours (12 hours) so could only get £508 maximum.
I explained it all to my mate after asking the union what to do (he was not a member but they have taken on non-union cases as well). The union and I both said "take the cash now or wait years".
So he's going to the "signing" at 3pm... I hope he fights his corner and gets what he deserves... albeit only 50%.... I can't go to help him as "interviews and signings will be on a one-to-one basis only"... no union reps or translators, etc.
I called the local rag, but they already have many council workers feeding them all the info....
I hope someone swings for this....
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