Bromsgrove News

Pay freeze for 1.6m council staff

© Press Association 2011

12:55pm Thursday 23rd February 2012

Around 1.6 million council workers are to have their pay frozen for a third year in a row, local authority employers have announced.

The "unprecedented" move affects workers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland and was blamed on rising costs and shrinking funding for council services.

Employers said increasing pay would mean more job losses and further cuts to services, but unions said the announcement was a "disgrace".

Local authority leaders were warned they faced the threat of industrial action if they did not agree to take the pay issue to arbitration.

Sarah Messenger, head of workforce at the Local Government Association, said: "This has been a very difficult decision to make but it is the right one for council tax payers and the workforce as a whole. A combination of rising costs and shrinking local government funding means councils were left with little choice. Increasing pay would mean more job losses and cuts to the services people need.

"Today's announcement represents an unprecedented third consecutive year of pay freeze and we recognise the frustration which will be felt by the workforce. While the financial outlook for councils is bleak, we are keen to begin discussions with the unions on a package of reform of pay and conditions that may enable us to avoid a fourth year of pay freeze in 2013."

Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB, said the union would consult its members over industrial action if employers refused to go to arbitration.

He said: "The politicians who lead local councils are a disgrace to the workforces they employ for offering no pay rise for the third consecutive year while feathering their own nests. Council leaders' pay has shot up and councillors vote themselves higher allowances while the carers, dinner ladies, dustmen, social workers, school support staff and all the other council workers serving their communities will have seen their pay fall in real terms by over 15%.

"The Chancellor promised the country in the 2010 Budget that low-paid public sector workers would be afforded some protection against the cuts so will he rein in the Conservative-controlled council leaders who have made a mockery of that promise?"

Mr Strutton said the announcement came as a "shock", adding: "I don't know any other workforce in the economy that has had to bear this and 150,000 job losses and cuts to terms and conditions."

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