08 February 2008
More strikes are in the offing after thousands of staff brought Birmingham City Council to a standstill on February 5 in protest at the imposition of a new pay structure.
The strike by 20,000 Unison, GMB and Unite members closed 168 schools along with many council buildings, while rubbish piled up as bins went uncollected.
Further action is planned for later this month as the unions pursue a dispute arising from the national Single Status Agreement signed in 1997, which is aimed at ensuring men and women receive equal pay for work of equal value.
The unions say 4,000 Birmingham council staff face pay cuts of between £1,000 and £18,000 under the new structure. The council's move to impose the revised pay rates by terminating existing contracts and re-employing staff under new terms has stoked workers' anger.
Unison regional secretary Valerie Broom said: 'The pay and grading review that Birmingham City Council are looking to impose at the end of March is completely unacceptable.' The council was 'seeking to cut its wage bill while disguising this odious scheme as an attempt to bring about equality for women within the workplace', she added.
Councillor Alan Rudge, Birmingham's Cabinet member for human resources and equalities, said: 'I'm sorry the trade unions have at this time felt unable to reach agreement on these matters, which would benefit many lower-paid staff and all those suffering a salary reduction.'
Birmingham has also been visited by bailiffs after problems with a new computer system left a backlog of 17,000 unpaid invoices.
The new computer system, based on SAP business software and supplied by the council's Service Birmingham partnership with Capita, went live at the end of October as part of a £140m project to transform back-office functions. The project is expected to generate savings of £820m — £490m of them cashable — over the next ten years.
Glyn Evans, assistant to the chief executive on transformation, said there were 'some issues' with a reorganisation to set up a shared service centre for invoice processing, but the council was 'on track' to clear the payment backlog by the end of the month.
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