by René Lavanchy
Local government bosses offered unions a doubled offer for council workers’ pay this week that could end three months of deadlock and avert strikes across England and Wales.
Workers have been offered a 1 per cent pay rise, with 1.25 per cent for the lowest paid, who earn less than £14,000. They were originally offered a 0.5 per cent rise in April.
Local government unions Unison, Unite and the GMB will now consider the offer at a meeting of their national joint council next week. As part of the offer, council bosses have also promised an agreement on avoiding redundancies.
Heather Wakefield, Unison’s head of local government, said: “We are pleased that the local government employers have come forward with an improved pay offer. While we believe that our members are worth more, we are pleased that the employers have realised that 0.5 per cent was an insult.
“It is also vital that we have an agreement in place to protect jobs in the sector. This will help keep services running through the recession – when families and communities need them most.”
Tribune understands that the latest offer was drafted by the Local Government Association nearly two months ago, but that arguments between the LGA’s political groups have prevented it being tabled until now. The Labour and Lib Dem councillors’ groups supported a pay rise, whereas the Conservatives and independents wanted a pay freeze.
Unions made a pay claim for this year in January of “at least the level of retail price inflation”, without giving a figure or saying how it should be calculated. Council bosses viewed the claim as unworkable, while some activists regret not being more precise.
Unison says that local authorities can afford a pay rise of 2.2 per cent, but all the LGA political groups deny this. A Labour member said: “It’ll vary from authority to authority but the figure they’ll have included will be for increasing the pay bill even if there’s no pay rise because staff are on increments.”
However, some councils which operate outside the national bargaining system have already agreed relatively generous pay deals. Buckinghamshire County Council, whose leader David Shakespeare has just stepped down as leader of the LGA Conservative group, is giving staff a 2.25 per cent pay rise, while South Oxfordshire council has agreed 4.8 per cent.
