04.05.16
Pay rise of 1% for local authority workers to be implemented, despite Unite opposition
Unite members have rejected a 1% pay offer from Local Government Employers, although they concede that the deal will go ahead after being accepted by other unions.
Fiona Farmer, Unite’s national officer for local government, said about 70,000 of the union’s local government members had refused to sign the two-year pay deal. Members had rejected the deal as they felt it didn’t do enough to offset the “poverty wages” they were facing, with a 20% real-terms cut in wages since 2010 combined with a 25% reduction in the workforce.
However, the offer, involving a 1% pay rise in the years starting April 2016 and April 2017, will be implemented after it was accepted in a collective bargaining process by other unions, most recently Unison.
Farmer said: “Pay in local government is the lowest across all public services and Unite will continue to campaign to remove the unjustified one per cent cap on pay, actively fight back against the Tories’ cuts and tackle councils which refuse to pay the ‘real living wage’.
(Image c. Andrew Skudder)