20 July 2007
Trade unions representing more than 1 million council workers have formally registered an industrial dispute with employers over their 2% pay offer.
Unison, the GMB and Unite further warned that they would ballot for co-ordinated strike action if the offer was not improved.
The move came as government figures revealed the total value of bonuses paid to senior civil servants in the Department for Communities and Local Government had more than doubled since 2003.
A spokesman for Unison said: 'To rapidly increase bonuses for senior officials, but squeeze pay levels below inflation for millions of workers in the public sector, is not just deeply wrong and insensitive, but it sends out the wrong messages across wider society, too.'
In 2003, the DCLG's predecessor department paid out £270,300 in senior civil servant bonuses. In 2007 it paid out £686,000: an increase of 154% over four years.
The number of SCSs qualifying for a bonus also increased over that time from 60 in 2003 to 104 in 2007, with the average bonus rising by 46% from £4,505 to £6,596.
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