By Vivienne Russell | 24 April 2013
Council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been offered a ‘best possible’ 1% pay increase for the current year, local authority employers announced today.
The deal also includes deletion of pay point 4, the lowest on the salary spine, from October. This will increase the minimum salary from £12,145 to £12,435, including the pay rise.
If agreed by unions, it will be the first increase in local government pay since 2009 and will add £150.35m to councils’ pay bills.
National Employers, which negotiates pay and conditions on behalf of 350 local authorities, said the rise would benefit more than 1 million workers, 77% of whom earn less that the median local government salary of £24,311.
Setting out the offer, Sian Timoney, chair of the employers’ side, said councils had been clear that employees should receive a pay rise this year.
‘This is the best offer possible in light of significant cuts to council funding,' she said.
‘It is fair to taxpayers and fair to our employees and recognises the financial pressures they are under.’
Timoney added that she was ‘very disappointed’ that trade unions had refused to discuss changes to local government workers’ terms and conditions, which have not been amended since 1997.
‘Local government needs a modern and reformed employment framework for the future and this will remain a priority objective for the sector.’
Responding to the offer, Heather Wakefield, head of local government at Unison, said: ‘Local government workers have seen a 16% decline in the value of their pay in the last three years, coupled with significant local attacks on terms and conditions.
‘Unison’s local government committee will be mindful of this when we consider this improved offer. We held out for a better deal and will now be consulting our local government members, the majority of whom are women who have been particularly hard hit by the coalition’s cuts to jobs, services, pay and conditions.’
Fiona Farmer, local government national officer at Unite, added: 'The offer is paltry given that local council employees provide vital services in their local community on a daily basis.
'We will be considering the offer in the context of the savage cuts in local government which have seen 200,000 job losses since the coalition’s austerity programme started to bite.'
Unite will launch a fair pay campaign next month in a bid to improve wages and conditions for local authority staff. The union says two-thirds earn less than £21,000 a year.
The offer does not apply to council chief executives, senior officers, teachers or firefighters, who are all covered by separate national pay agreements.
