EQUAL PAY CLAIMS - BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SIGN

24 February 2006

To: All Members who received an Equal Pay Settlement Offer

Dear Colleague

You may have been given an offer from the Council to settle any equal pay claim you may have against them. The Branch has now been given advice from UNISON's Scottish Legal Officer (in full below) and our advice to members is make sure you know all this before you think of signing:-

• Don't Sign away all your rights: The offer you will get from the Council only relates to the amount you may have been underpaid because you couldn't get bonus. But on top of this you might also be due more compensation because of your grade or for other reasons. It looks like you will be asked to give up all these rights to claim compensation if you take up the Council's offer.
  
  
• Ask the adviser whether your are signing away your rights: The Council will invite you to a 'signing event'. The Council has arranged an independent legal adviser. Ask this adviser of the document you are being asked to sign means you give up all claims or just a claim on bonus.
  
  
• Check what other rights you might be losing: You should ask what other rights or claims you might be signing away.
  
  
• If they say you have to sign away all your rights - don't sign: If, as we suspect, the answer is that you are signing away your rights to all claims, then UNISON advice is don't sign. Seek union advice on taking your claim to tribunal.

The full advice given by the legal officer is:-

"The Council will make an offer of compensation to many staff and our advice to members on the merit of that proposal is set out in correspondence and on our website. However, in addition to that guidance we offer the following advice to anyone considering such an offer: do not sign away any equal pay rights other than those relating to exclusion from the bonus scheme. If the employer insists that workers sign away all their rights then members should reject the proposal. UNISON will advise on this issue and we will provide our normal legal service to anyone with an equal pay claim".

GEORGE LEE
Branch Secretary

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