Council workers stage pay protests

31 Mar 14
Council workers will today hold protests across the UK as trade unions step up their campaign for an improved pay offer from local government employers.

By Richard Johnstone | 1 April 2014

Council workers will today hold protests across the UK as trade unions step up their campaign for an improved pay offer from local government employers.

Trade union Unison, which has 600,000 local government members, will hold events today to campaign for a Living Wage for all council workers.

This comes as the union, along with the GMB and Unite, consults over possible industrial action following last month's pay offer from the Local Government Association, which would see the majority of staff receive a rise of 1%. The unions had sought a £1.20 an hour minimum increase on all pay bands – an increase of more than 18% in some cases – to bring all pay in the sector rates up to the level of the Living Wage.

Unison’s head of local government Heather Wakefield said today’s protests –– which take place on the fifteenth anniversary of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage – were needed as council workers had had enough of real terms pay cuts.

In 1999, the lowest pay scale in local government was 24% above the level of the minimum wage, but it was now only 2.2% above this baseline, she said.

‘The National Minimum Wage was introduced to protect workers who are most vulnerable to low pay,’ Wakefield added.

‘It was not designed as a tool to benchmark the pay of skilled workers delivering essential public services.

‘Seventy-five per cent of the local government workforce are women, who are increasingly undervalued and who are not prepared to sit back and let their families slide further into poverty.’

 

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