Council’s sick leave policy blasted again
HALTON council has come under fire for refusing to budge on its unpopular unpaid leave sick pay policy.
Furious Unison members waved banners in protest outside Runcorn Town Hall ahead of a meeting that saw councillors forced to make ‘unpalatable’ decisions over next year’s budget.
The hard-hit council will need to make £9.8m worth of savings in 20192020 and a further £11m by 2021.
Plans to close the budget gap include maintaining the policy of four days’ unpaid sick leave for the eighth year running.
Over a dozen Halton councillors declared an interest in budget proposals, stating they had family members who worked for the council as their reasoning.
But the Labour-dominated authority unanimously passed the budget cuts.
The decision has disappointed Unison representatives, who had hoped the council would re-think sick pay policy after “years of pay freezes.”
Paula Barker, branch secretary of Halton’s Local Government Unison, said: “We are bitterly disappointed with the council’s decision to continue with four days’ of unpaid leave.
“We have had eight years of four days’ unpaid leave imposed upon our members.
“We have seen the bottom end of the scale lose about £2,500 over five years and it goes up to £5,500 on the top end of the scale before you reach ● chief officer level.
“We have asked the council year on year to discuss this with us.
“Our members have suffered for 10 years of Tory austerity. They have seen year upon year of pay freezes and pay cuts and we don’t expect a Labour authority to impose further pay cuts on our members of staff.”
Deputy council leader and cabinet member for resources Mike Wharton said the four days’ unpaid leave arrangement made ● annual £750,000.
At the meeting, he said the council were required by statute to produce a balanced budget – forcing them to make ‘unpalatable’ decisions.
Taking aim at Theresa May, who that night faced a confidence vote in the House of Commons, he said ‘ chaos reigned’ in Government, and blasted false promises about ending austerity.
He said: “There are many things on the list savings of before you which we would not have wanted to consider.
“But given the position the Government have put us in we have very little choice.
“All the services we provide for our borough are either required by statute or essential to residents.
“There is nothing which isn’t required, the dilemma is at what level we can continue to provide these essential services.
“The Chancellor gave his autumn budget statement in November and declared the era of financial austerity will end. Unfortunately he didn’t then do much to suggest that this was the case in his budget statement.”
Acknowledging the concerns raised by Unison members, Cllr Wharton said a taskforce had been set up to review the policy.
Miss Barker welcomed this development, but said workers would have preferred to see the intro- duction of a voluntary sick pay scheme similar to those already operated in many councils across the North West.
She claimed this type of scheme has been proven to yield savings in other areas.
She added: “It comes as no surprise that while they impose pay cuts upon us, elected members have not taken cuts to their expenses.
“It’s about time that they also took a pay cut. Enough is enough.”