Council workers 'face poverty without pay rise'

28 Oct 11
Local authority staff will be pushed into poverty unless they are given a 'substantial' pay increase next year, their trade unions have said.

By Mark Smulian | 28 October 2011

Local authority staff will be pushed into poverty unless they are given a ‘substantial’ pay increase next year, their trade unions have said.

Unison, GMB and Unite unions said that by April 2012 there will have been a two-year pay freeze in local government. This, combined with the impact of inflation, adds up to an 11.6% pay cut and leaves 314,527 union members on pay levels equivalent to less than the minimum wage, they said.

Tabling their claim for 2012/13 for workers covered by the National Joint Council negotiating mechanism, the unions called for ‘a substantial increase in pay’, although not a specific percentage or monetary rise.

The NJC covers some 1.6 million local authority staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland below senior manager level, excluding teachers, craft and youth workers.

Its pay scales are also followed by private and voluntary sector organisations that provide local government services.

Heather Wakefield, head of local government at Unison, the largest union involved, said: ‘Local government workers have suffered real financial hardship for two years, as the cost of living has risen sharply, but their pay has stayed the same.

‘If their pay is frozen for another year and costs remain high, whole families will struggle as they are pushed further into poverty.’

According to the unions, 69% of staff covered by the NJC earn less than £21,000 a year and 75% are female.

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