A critical report complied by auditors on the state of Birmingham City Council's finances has been released, making 12 recommendations which they believe the council should enact. One of the recommendations is to pick a new job evaluation scheme as quickly as possible to end the rising equal pay liability.
Cllr Robert Alden, Leader of the Opposition, said "We knew that something was rotten in the state of Birmingham Labour. Now it has become clear as well as refusing to act to prevent Labour's Equal Pay Crisis, when challenged by senior officers in the Council the Labour Group choose to question their integrity and demand external reviews of their legal advice at cost to the Council. Sadly this all sounds eerily familiar with the actions of Birmingham Labour during 2017's Bin Strike. Once again Birmingham residents are being left to suffer from the mistakes of a ruling group at Birmingham City Council focused more on protecting the Labour brand than protecting residents".
Cllr Robert Alden added "how many final chances does the Leader of the Council need to do his job and lead! The Auditors are clear they gave them until June to fix Equal Pay, they didn't even admit the liability publicly until then. In July the Cabinet passed the buck to the CBM committee. In August they twice postponed meetings instead of acting. In September they have refused to call the meeting the officers, opposition and auditors have begged them to hold. Every day the Leader of the Council refuses to act is another service or community building residents will end up losing. Labours six months of delays this Summer has cost £84m so far and yet still they refuse to select a new Job Evaluation Scheme and ensure women are paid fairly at Birmingham City Council.
Cllr Ewan Mackey Deputy Leader of the Opposition said "This report exposes the alarming shortcomings of a dysfunctional and irresponsible political leadership that has been unwilling to listen to advice or prioritize the well-being of our city and its residents. If there was any doubt before, there can be no hiding place now from the fact the actions of this Labour leadership has directly cost this city hundreds of millions of pounds. And yet still they fail to act. So desperate to protect their own brand, they have undermined statutory officers and failed in their legal and moral duties. Every service cut we now see, every asset lost, every penny in additional taxes and charges for hard working residents, is because they chose to pay their female employees less favourably than their male counterparts, and then chose to try to cover that up for 6 years and ignore all warnings to fix the issue. Every day they now waste in failing to take the action needed to implement a lawful pay scheme is more jobs lost, more buildings sold, more money taken from the pockets of hardworking residents".
Cllr Robert Alden concluded "it is unprecedented that this report sees 12 statutory recommendations issued against the City Council. One has to ask though if the Labour Group have investigated brave officers for trying to save Birmingham City Council, when will they be investigated for refusing to act all Summer to save residents?"
