06 March 2009
By Tash Shifrin
Council leaders have warned that jobs will be axed to fund the extra 0.3% pay increase for staff imposed by arbitration service Acas.
Local government employers and unions had agreed to binding arbitration by Acas in the dispute over last year’s pay claim, following national strikes by council workers.
The unions, which had rejected a ‘final offer’ of 2.45%, welcomed Acas’s March 3 decision to impose a 2.75% settlement.
In a joint statement, Unison, Unite and the GMB said: ‘Acas has accepted our arguments that members should receive a higher pay increase. Acas stated that the award is “justified and affordable in the context of the claim for the year 2008/09”.’
But local authorities reacted with dismay to what they called ‘an extremely bitter blow’. Local Government Association chair Margaret Eaton said: ‘Councils are extremely surprised and disappointed by this result, which runs counter to all the evidence. The additional pay award defies common sense and will be a devastating blow to council workers, who will see jobs shed to balance the books.’
She added: ‘We are not prepared to pass this cost on to council tax payers, so it will be jobs that have to go.’
But councils have been told they will get more help with introducing equal pay schemes. Town halls have been struggling to handle the costs of overhauling their pay structures following the 1997 Single Status Agreement between unions and employers, which was designed to give women and men equal pay for work of equal value.
Local government minister John Healey announced a new round of capitalisation permissions for next year. This will allow councils to meet the one-off costs of implementing equal pay by borrowing against or selling assets.
The Department for Communities and Local Government said the amount of equal pay capitalisation would be announced in October ‘after taking into account the demand for capitalisation, the resources available to authorities and the wider fiscal position’.
The announcement came as Unison declared victory over Coventry City Council at the Employment Appeals Tribunal. The tribunal upheld the union’s claim that the authority was wrong to impose a new pay formula on staff, because it did not introduce equal pay between male and female workers.
PFmar2009
