‘Bankrupt’ council’s Labour chiefs ‘gave £800m legal responsibility a zero threat ranking’
Labour chiefs on the now ‘effectively bankrupt’ Birmingham City Council have been warned prematurely that the authority may face equal pay claims estimated at ‘between £300m and £800m’ after greater than 3,000 GMB members sued the council for its allegedly discriminatory pay insurance policies.
The big legal responsibility has been a key purpose behind the council’s declaration that it couldn’t stability its books and was on the verge of ‘chapter’.
However the council went on to set a price range for the 12 months forward that gave the legal responsibility problem a ‘zero’ threat ranking – after council leaders allegedly did not share the size of the problem with councillors – it has now emerged.
The council’s former chief Ian Ward, his then deputy Brigid Jones and present chief John Cotton have been in an ‘inside circle’ of people that had been warned concerning the scale of the legal responsibility in “early February” by the town’s interim HR chief Darren Hockaday.
The revelation emerged at a metropolis council finance scrutiny assembly final week (Thursday, September 7). It is claimed that the details about equal pay publicity was not shared with the council or different members.
The council subsequently went on to set its price range for the 12 months forward simply weeks later. The price range did acknowledge that there was probably a £270 million for equal pay legal responsibility – however mentioned there was a zero per cent threat of it impacting its price range.
However, the legal responsibility is definitely someplace between £650m and £760m – and is rising at a price of between £5 million and £14 million monthly – the Council’s Chief Executive Deborah Cadman introduced in June.
This big sum was a key issue within the council declaring, by issuing a Section 114 Notice, that it’s successfully bankrupt and might’t handle its monetary affairs.
The revelation that the town’s senior Labor leaders knew concerning the scale of the legal responsibility – and allegedly down-played it – has infuriated rival political events within the metropolis. Birmingham Conservatives chief, Cllr Robert Alden, pushed his Labour counterpart John Cotton to apologise to the individuals of the town, reported Birmingham Live.
“Apologise to the residents, to your colleagues and to the staff who are going to lose their jobs because this administration did not do their jobs,” demanded Alden.
Cotton replied: “We all regret the situation we are in now – we now have to ensure we protect frontline services and tackle inequalities. We will take responsibility for those issues we are responsible for.”
Tory Deputy Leader Cllr Ewan Mackey mentioned: “Labour’s addiction to secrecy and unwillingness to face up to and tackle tough decisions is a big reason the council is in such as big mess and it is the residents of Birmingham who will be paying the price for this shameful behaviour for years, and even decades to come.”
Regarding the equal pay legal responsibility, GMB organiser Michelle MCrossen mentioned final week: “After years of campaigning and years of stalling from the Council, Birmingham’s ladies staff will take energy from figuring out that they’ll lastly have their day in court docket.
“But Birmingham City Council doesn’t have to attend one other 14 months to finish the discrimination and settle this dispute – they need to sit down with GMB and type this out now.
“That can be the proper factor to do for the 1000’s of girls staff whose hard-earned wages have been stolen from them, however it’s additionally the proper factor to do for the Council to save cash and safe the way forward for the town’s providers.
“It’s time for the Council management to lastly do what’s greatest for Birmingham and ship pay justice.”