26 October 2001
The Employers Organisation, which represents councils in pay negotiations, wants to change the constitution of the Joint National Council, the body that thrashes out the annual pay settlement for 1.3 million local government staff.
It currently allows either side to take the dispute to arbitration, even if the other side refuses. The EO believes this provision, which could lead to a deal being struck that councils cannot afford, unfairly strengthens the unions' hand during negotiations.
But Unison's deputy head of local government, Heather Wakefield, told Public Finance there was no question of the unions agreeing to the demand, which was put forward by the EO at the JNC meeting on October 23.
'Resorting to unilateral arbitration would only ever be a last resort, and in fact it has never been used. We are very happy to restate our commitment to reaching a negotiated settlement and to avoiding the use of arbitration. But we strongly oppose removing that right and we are not going to agree to it.'
An EO spokesman told PF that the organisation would continue to press its case when the pay negotiations get under way in December. 'Unilateral arbitration distorts the negotiating process and has been discontinued in other areas of the public sector such as the civil service and NHS,' he said.
PFoct2001
