Overflowing rubbish bins, picket lines, sackings and strikes. Things are suddenly cutting up rough on the public sector pay front, and you don’t have to look far to see why.
The economic downturn, a de facto pay freeze and mounting concerns over job insecurity are all contributing to the unease.
Almost half of public sector employers plan to make redundancies this quarter – up from 21% since the autumn, and a far higher rate than for the economy as a whole. The head of conciliation service Acas is predicting many more disputes ahead.
Some of the pressures souring industrial relations are down to factors beyond public sector managers’ direct control. The squeeze on public finances and government efficiency drives have severely limited the room for manoeuvre – as witnessed by Glasgow council’s decision this week to shed more than 400 jobs following a freeze on council tax .
But some of it is self-inflicted. Nowhere is this clearer than in relation to the acrimonious disputes over equal pay (see Less equal than others). This issue led to a major local government strike last week in Birmingham, with another joint union walkout planned for February 26. Disputes over new pay structures are breaking out across the country.
What is at stake is an attempt to ‘level down’ the pay of some, mainly male, employees to meet councils’ equal pay obligations under the 1997 Single Status Agreement: a move that many regard as divisive.
Meanwhile, employment tribunals are facing a deluge of equal pay claims brought by the unions and, increasingly, by no-win, no-fee lawyers.
With almost £5bn at stake in potential costs, local government employers are extremely nervous about the outcome. But they have largely themselves
to blame.
Fewer than half of councils have even carried out an SSA equal pay review, let alone worked out how to stump up the sums owed to their predominantly low-paid female staff.
Council leaders might argue, with some justice, that they need more help to fund the outcome of equal pay reviews. But almost 40 years on from the equal pay legislation, this should not still be a contentious issue. Nor one that, in a cold economic climate, ends up on the back burner.
