By Tash Shifrin
06 August 2009
Leaders of Labour and Liberal Democrat local authorities have urged councils not to walk out of the national pay bargaining system, as Conservative councils backed away from the employers’ 1% offer.
Local Government Employers made the 1% pay offer last month, in a package that includes an extra day’s holiday and an additional 0.25% for the lowest paid staff.
Unions are now consulting members on the deal. The package – an increase on an earlier 0.5% proposal that was thrown out by unions – was agreed by a majority vote on the employers’ side. Labour and LibDem representatives voted in favour and the Conservatives against.
Now a potential split looms on the employers’ side. A string of Conservative-controlled authorities have suggested they might abandon the national bargaining system, or attempt to block this year’s deal, including London boroughs and Birmingham City Council – England’s largest local authority.
Birmingham, where staff staged a series of strikes against an imposed new pay structure last year, has taken its opposition to the pay offer furthest and is canvassing its West Midlands neighbours for support.
A spokesman said: ‘We are lobbying for the withdrawal of the national pay award as we feel any pay increase would be out of step with the global economic realities being experienced throughout the rest of the economy and pressures the economic slowdown is placing upon public spending.’
Somerset County Council has also said it would support ‘an investigation into the possibility of a pay freeze’ for its staff.
Richard Kemp, leader of the Local Government Association’s LibDem group, noted that a number of local authorities already operated outside the national pay bargaining framework.
But he told Public Finance: ‘I’d strongly urge councils not to go outside it. It stokes up trouble for individual councils. It would be silly for them to do it and it would certainly weaken our ability as employers.’
He added: ‘I think people will largely stay together, but this is going to get harder and harder in successive pay rounds at a time of poverty.’
LGA Labour Group leader Sir Jeremy Beecham told PF: ‘The national framework is important for local government and it would be a great shame if people were to walk away from it. I don’t think it’s helpful if people do not abide by the majority decision of the established machinery.’
Beecham added that, among the Conservative councils that have already opted out of the national bargaining system, several had ‘implemented higher rises’ than the LGE’s 1% offer. ‘Perhaps Birmingham should have a word with some of them,’ he suggested. ‘It hasn’t helped our negotiating position.’
Figures from trade union Unison for 33 separate pay awards made in the Southeast – where the bulk of opt-out councils, many facing recruitment problems, are located – show an average 1.5% rise this year, with half paying out 2% or more. South Oxfordshire council staff will receive a 4.8% uplift this year.
Unison’s deputy head of local government, Lucille Thirlby, said the rebel councils’ refusal to back the offer ‘undermines the bargaining structure’. She added: ‘There is a negotiation going on, on the basis of an offer that councils have been consulted on. Our members have a right to say whether they accept that.’
A spokesman for the LGA’s Conservative group said: ‘There are a number of councils and councillors that are unhappy with the decision on pay.’
The Tories control more than 210 councils outright, but because representation in the bargaining structures is weighted according to councils’ population size, ‘that doesn’t seem to count for anything’, he said.
An LGE spokesman said: ‘It’s disappointing that as a result of this pay offer, some councils are now contemplating the future of their position within national pay bargaining.
‘The national employers are looking at proposals to ensure in future these very difficult decisions are made with even greater consultation and accountability.’
LGE also confirmed that just 44 councils have opted out of the national pay agreement.
06 August 2009
Leaders of Labour and Liberal Democrat local authorities have urged councils not to walk out of the national pay bargaining system, as Conservative councils backed away from the employers’ 1% offer.
Local Government Employers made the 1% pay offer last month, in a package that includes an extra day’s holiday and an additional 0.25% for the lowest paid staff.
Unions are now consulting members on the deal. The package – an increase on an earlier 0.5% proposal that was thrown out by unions – was agreed by a majority vote on the employers’ side. Labour and LibDem representatives voted in favour and the Conservatives against.
Now a potential split looms on the employers’ side. A string of Conservative-controlled authorities have suggested they might abandon the national bargaining system, or attempt to block this year’s deal, including London boroughs and Birmingham City Council – England’s largest local authority.
Birmingham, where staff staged a series of strikes against an imposed new pay structure last year, has taken its opposition to the pay offer furthest and is canvassing its West Midlands neighbours for support.
A spokesman said: ‘We are lobbying for the withdrawal of the national pay award as we feel any pay increase would be out of step with the global economic realities being experienced throughout the rest of the economy and pressures the economic slowdown is placing upon public spending.’
Somerset County Council has also said it would support ‘an investigation into the possibility of a pay freeze’ for its staff.
Richard Kemp, leader of the Local Government Association’s LibDem group, noted that a number of local authorities already operated outside the national pay bargaining framework.
But he told Public Finance: ‘I’d strongly urge councils not to go outside it. It stokes up trouble for individual councils. It would be silly for them to do it and it would certainly weaken our ability as employers.’
He added: ‘I think people will largely stay together, but this is going to get harder and harder in successive pay rounds at a time of poverty.’
LGA Labour Group leader Sir Jeremy Beecham told PF: ‘The national framework is important for local government and it would be a great shame if people were to walk away from it. I don’t think it’s helpful if people do not abide by the majority decision of the established machinery.’
Beecham added that, among the Conservative councils that have already opted out of the national bargaining system, several had ‘implemented higher rises’ than the LGE’s 1% offer. ‘Perhaps Birmingham should have a word with some of them,’ he suggested. ‘It hasn’t helped our negotiating position.’
Figures from trade union Unison for 33 separate pay awards made in the Southeast – where the bulk of opt-out councils, many facing recruitment problems, are located – show an average 1.5% rise this year, with half paying out 2% or more. South Oxfordshire council staff will receive a 4.8% uplift this year.
Unison’s deputy head of local government, Lucille Thirlby, said the rebel councils’ refusal to back the offer ‘undermines the bargaining structure’. She added: ‘There is a negotiation going on, on the basis of an offer that councils have been consulted on. Our members have a right to say whether they accept that.’
A spokesman for the LGA’s Conservative group said: ‘There are a number of councils and councillors that are unhappy with the decision on pay.’
The Tories control more than 210 councils outright, but because representation in the bargaining structures is weighted according to councils’ population size, ‘that doesn’t seem to count for anything’, he said.
An LGE spokesman said: ‘It’s disappointing that as a result of this pay offer, some councils are now contemplating the future of their position within national pay bargaining.
‘The national employers are looking at proposals to ensure in future these very difficult decisions are made with even greater consultation and accountability.’
LGE also confirmed that just 44 councils have opted out of the national pay agreement.
