08 February 2002
The Employers Organisation, which represents authorities in the annual local government pay talks, told Public Finance that the gap between the two sides was 'extraordinarily wide'.
During the meeting of the National Joint Council, on February 6, EO representatives offered a 2.5% pay rise. This was immediately slammed by the unions as 'derisory'.
EO spokesman Jim Chrystie said employers were 'pessimistic' about the chances of reaching a negotiated settlement for 2002/03. He added that he thought industrial action was 'certainly a possibility'.
He told PF: 'The gap is wide and we're heading for a difference the scale of which we have not seen in a decade. There hasn't been a national dispute since 1989. But it looks like the unions are heading down the road of confrontation.
'We are going to be stuck between the unions' ambitions and financial realities. There is absolutely no way that local authorities could afford what they are asking for.'
Unison, the GMB and the T&G have demanded a pay rise of 6% or £1,750, whichever is the greater, for their 1.2 million members employed by local authorities. The inflation-busting demand would mean a pay rise of almost 20% for those at the bottom of the scale.
Chrystie said the 2.5% increase made by the employers was a reasonable deal. 'It is three times the current rate of inflation and more than what a quarter of local authorities received in grant increase.'
But the unions hit back angrily at the employers' offer, condemning it as an insult. Malcolm Wing, Unison's head of local government, told PF the unions were determined to stop their members' wages falling behind those of people working in other sectors.
'This doesn't go anywhere near the aspirations of local government workers, and does nothing to close the gap between them and workers in other parts of the public sector and the private sector.'
Wing said the unions were not considering industrial action 'at this stage' but did not rule it out altogether. He reaffirmed the unions' commitment to winning a substantial pay rise for their members. 'We are at the first stage in what could be a very long process. No one should underestimate the seriousness of the position we are in.'
PFfeb2002
