Pay talks open to the usual discord

13 Dec 01
Local government employers have emphatically rejected the public sector unions' opening salvo in the 2002 pay negotiations as 'completely unrealistic'.

14 December 2001

Unison, the GMB and the T&G have demanded a pay rise of 6% or £1,750, whichever is greater, for their 1.2 million members employed by local authorities.

The Employers Organisation, which represents the local authorities, responded by immediately ruling out any such deal.

Brian Baldwin, chair of the employers' side of the National Joint Council, the forum in which the talks occur, raised the spectre of this year's negotiations descending into industrial action.

'It would seem at first glance that the unions do not want to see a negotiated settlement this year. There is no question of agreement on this claim or anything like it,' Baldwin said.

According to EO calculations, the unions' bid would mean an average pay increase of 11.7% and a 19% rise for those at the bottom of the pay scale. It would cost English and Welsh councils £1.7bn. 'No council can afford this exorbitant claim,' Baldwin added.

The two sides struck up their familiar overture as the National Joint Council convened for its first meeting devoted to the annual pay negotiations on December 10.

Union leaders admitted their bid was 'unashamedly ambitious'. But they argued that the claim, which they bill as a 'catch-up and match-up' measure, is needed to close the gap between local government staff and their colleagues in other parts of the public sector and the private sector.

This initial bid is even greater than last year, when they called for a £1,000 flat-rate increase. Malcolm Wing, head of local government at Unison, the country's biggest public sector union, said a generous deal was crucial to prevent staff leaving for 'better-paid, less stressful jobs' in the private sector.

'The size of the claim shows just how far council staff have fallen behind,' he said. 'We have to start paying the people who deliver our vital local services decent wages.'

Unison also released figures showing that 277,000 local government staff earn less than £5 per hour, of whom 90% are part-time women workers. The unions argue that their claim would help close this pay gap.

PFdec2001

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