Domestic abuse workers face £11k pay cut under new council scheme

Domestic abuse support workers with Glasgow City Council face wage cuts of more than £11,000 under the local authority's new pay plans.

Staff at Assist, a domestic abuse advocacy service that works with high-risk cases, are essentially being moved down a pay grade after the council carried out an evaluation of jobs.

Workers said the evaluation left them feeling insulted after it suggested their work only required them to pay attention for 30 minutes at a time.

The local authority this week said it intended to sack more than 23,000 staff and re-hire them on new contracts to implement its new pay structure, only to halt the plan a day later.

The council is introducing the scheme to resolve a long-running equal pay dispute, after it emerged the previous structure discriminated against women workers.

The changes should see 63% of about 24,000 non-teaching staff get a pay rise, but 11% of staff face a reduction in wages.

Employees with Assist who work 35 hours a week have been told their salary - which usually is about £45,000 - will be slashed by £11,500. Those who work 28 hours a week face a reduction of about £9,000.

One worker, who did not wish to be named, said: "I know colleagues who won't be able to pay their mortgages because of this.

"It's a huge amount of money, and that's not even taking into account what you will be losing from your pension.

"We've already got mortgages, holidays, care for elderly relatives, childcare. We all have financial commitments that we can't get out of, even by tightening our belts."

Staff told BBC Scotland News they fear experienced and skilled workers will choose to leave their jobs or end up on sick leave due to stress caused by the changes.

This would then have the knock-on effect of placing current users of Assist at further risk.

The new pay structure was created by grading each role across 13 different categories and creating a ranked order of jobs.

Staff with Assist carry out tasks such as risk assessments, support plans for domestic abuse victims with other services such as police and social work, and court support.

Last week, Dr Emma Forbes, the national lead for domestic abuse with the Crown Office, said the service relies on the likes of Assist "to be best equipped" in dealing with cases.

The service is already under pressure. In January this year it began operating under temporary referral criteria - meaning it has to send many applicants elsewhere.

A second worker affected by the proposals said: "This is going to wipe out a lot of really skilled colleagues.

"This isn't just affecting a group of advocacy workers. If we are not going to be there in the moment at work, then very vulnerable woman we support are at higher risk of homicide.

"We deal with women who are potential victims of homicide, and it feels not enough people in the higher levels of the council understand that."

The council intend to introduce the new scheme in April 2027, with salary changes cutting pay deferred for 12 months.

The local authority say it will help staff adjust to the changes and explore other options with affected employees.

These could include service reform or redeploying staff, as well as offering early retirement and voluntary redundancy.

Glasgow City Council has been embroiled in pay issues with staff for years, after it emerged its Workforce Pay and Benefits Review - introduced in 2006 when Labour were in power - discriminated against women workers.

Female staff working in roles such as catering or cleaning had for years been receiving up to £3 an hour less than those in male-dominated areas such as refuse collection.

The local authority, by then under SNP control, announced in January 2018 it planned to reach a negotiated settlement on thousands of equal pay claims arising from discrepancies in pay, and introduce a new pay scheme.

As part of this, an evaluation was carried out looking at each role, with staff given questionnaires, and in some cases interviewed about their job.

The 13 different factors included physical effort, mental skills, concentration and physical co-ordination.

The job evaluation then provided a score for each role within the council, with those scores then used to establish which pay grade - out of a possible 12 - each job should sit in.

"Just before Christmas we got a document that really minimised our roles," said one Assist worker.

"It said things like we only need to pay attention for 30 minutes at a time, and the level of concentration in our job is similar to what's needed for painting a window frame.

"One of my colleagues said she doesn't know how much concentration it takes to paint a window frame, but the difference between it and our job is if you paint it wrongly then no-one dies."

In August, the group joined other domestic abuse groups to meet First Minister John Swinney to discuss ways of tackling violence against women.

The cuts to Assist were raised at Holyrood by the MSP Fulton McGregor, but the first minister said it was "a matter for Glasgow City Council to address".

One worker told BBC Scotland News the response was devastating to hear.

The city council previously acknowledged that some workers will be adversely affected by the changes, with then council leader Susan Aitken saying there would be a "very real and very personal impact" to staff.

However, it believes it has no choice other than to change the current pay arrangements, or else face more claims in the future regarding discriminatory pay.

The council claim these further claims could run into millions of pounds.

It previously agreed to pay out a total of about £770m to settle with 19,000 claimants, both current and former employees, over the Workforce Pay and Benefits Review discrepancies.

A spokesman said: "Glasgow City Council's pay and grading scheme is discriminatory – it does not always reward equal work with equal pay.

"We need to replace it with a new scheme and last month we agreed we would do so in April 2027. When we do, more than 85% of our employees whose posts have been evaluated will see their pay increase.

"Where people in any role face a loss in earnings, their current pay will be protected until April 2028 and the council is committed to using this time to explore all possible mitigation, while maintaining the integrity of the pay scheme."

A Scottish government spokesperson said officials were engaging with the council regarding implications of the changes, but it was ultimately a matter for the local authority.