UPDATE 14 AUGUST 2006

ABERDEENSHIRE COUNCIL SINGLE STATUS

The Council, with agreement from the Trade Unions, has decided to delay the consultation on Single Status. It is now intended that the consultation period will run for 6 weeks beginning on 18 September 2006.

UNISON has agreed to this. The Council intend to hold employee briefings throughout the consultation period to explain what Single Status will mean for you.

UNISON intends to hold meetings across Aberdeenshire during the consultation period to offer support and answer questions from members - details of these meeting to follow.

The reasons for the change in timetable are: " At present an Equality Audit is being carried out by an independent expert and is not yet completed " There are outstanding issues on terms and conditions which need to be clarified " The proposal still requires fine tuning.

UNISON continues to be involved in negotiations with the Council and other trade unions. We continue to try to negotiate the best we possibly can for our members. We believe this delay will assist our negotiating position.

Only union members will be balloted on the Single Status proposals and UNISON will ballot members during the last few weeks of the consultation period. Please use your vote - this will be your chance to have your say on the Single Status proposals.

The implementation date for Single Status remains at 1 January 2007.

PLEASE REMEMBER Although Aberdeenshire Council has made a compensatory offer in respect of equal pay to some groups of female workers - there may still be potential equal pay claims that could arise from the implementation of Single Status. The law states that any claim for equal pay must be lodged at Employment Tribunal within 6 months (minus one day) from the end/change of a contract. So, if you retire/leave/change contract - please get in touch with the office as soon as possible.

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