One million council workers offered two per cent pay rise
MORE THAN 1m council workers have been offered a two-year pay deal worth two per cent a year for most employees.
Workers on salaries starting at £19,430 would receive a two per cent rise from next April 2018 and a further two per cent in April 2019, with those on lower salaries receiving higher increases.
The offer was made on behalf of 350 local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and would add 5.6 per cent to the pay bill. It does not apply to council chief executives, senior officers, teachers or firefighters, who are covered by separate national pay arrangements.
Pay in local government is determined between employers and unions, with the Government playing no formal role in negotiations, although unions say council workers have been affected by the same squeeze on pay as other public-sector workers.
Unions representing local government workers will now consider the offer, which they said is worth up to 16 per cent over two years for lower-paid staff. Heather Wakefield, of Unison, said: “Council and school support staff are the lowest-paid workers across our public services and are long overdue a wage rise above the one per cent cap.
“The Government must now come up with the cash to fund local government properly so councils have the money to give their staff a wage increase that doesn’t put more services or jobs at risk.”
GMB national officer Rehana Azam said: “Local government workers are suffering the worst squeeze on their pay in living memory. We have been clear throughout that the years of pay-pinching must be brought to an end with decent pay rises.
“We’ll now be giving the employers’ formal offer the careful scrutiny and consideration it requires.”
Unite national officer Jim Kennedy said: “Continuing Government cuts to local government have seen real-terms pay cuts of up to 21 per cent for some of the lowest-paid public servants in the country. This self-defeating austerity, which is denying communities vital services and sucking money out of local economies, is unsustainable and has to end.”
Andrew Gwynne, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said: “Labour leaders in local government have worked tirelessly to urge the Government to scrap the one per cent pay cap and provide funding to give public-sector workers the pay rise they deserve.”