Council workers feel the savage chill of life under Tories as pay freeze bites

12 April 2010

Unite, the UK's largest union, today (Monday, April 12), attacked the decision of the Tory-dominated Local Government Employers (LGE) to freeze the pay of low-waged local government workers from this month.

The pay freeze – a cut in real terms – bites from April 2010, and will hit especially hard the two thirds of all local government workers earning less than £18,000 a year, and Unite warns will hit local economies struggling to get back on their feet in the wake of the recession.

Yet with local councils in receipt of a 4 percent increase in their central government funding, the pay freeze is "totally unjustified", Unite says. Many councils have also budgeted for a 2 percent pay rise – yet the Tory-dominated Employers are refusing to pay it.

he union, today, is launching its People, Pay and Pension campaign in a bid to overturn this move and return wage fairness to local government.

With only weeks to go before local elections in many parts of England on May 6th, Unite says voters need to know that the employers, 60 percent of whom are Tory-controlled local authorities, are forcing through changes that will hit the services they value.

Peter Allenson, Unite's national organiser for the services sector, said: "The fair-minded voters of this country will be appalled to learn that local government employers are forcing the low-waged to pay the price of mistakes made elsewhere in our economy.

"It is totally unjustified for the Tory-dominated local government employers to pocket a central funding increase but then to freeze the wages of low- paid workers. Most of these workers earn less than £18,000 a year. Taking from their wage packets does nothing more than widen the poverty gap in this country. This savage cut must be reversed now."

Unite has claimed a 2.5 percent pay increase or £500, whichever was the greater, but the employers have refused to negotiate, despite growing pressure from the trade unions.

Doug Nicholls, Unite national officer for Community, Youth Workers and Not for Profit sector, said: "Unite is demanding to know where the money central government put into local government funding has gone and why councils are being discouraged from awarding a pay increase, because it seems obvious that local authorities are short-changing our members."

John Allott, Unite national officer for local authorities, added: "Attacking the pay of local government workers will cause dire financial hardship, and hit their ability to re-invest in their local economies".

"People are mistaken if they think this pay freeze will not impact on the services they rely on. Services such as rubbish collection, recycling, street cleaning, library services and nursery provision will all suffer, as an overworked and underpaid workforce struggles to respond to the public’s growing needs."

Unite’s People, Pay and Pensions campaign aims to protect local government services, as well as the pay and pensions of council workers. Many economists agree that cutting back on public spending, including pay cuts, at such a fragile moment in the economic recovery could plunge the country back into recession.

According to research by the Association of Public Service Excellence, council workers re-spend 52 pence from every pound in the local economy. The Local Government Association’s Labour group is against an across- the- board pay freeze for the sector and believes the lowest paid should get a 1 percent rise.

Unite’s PPP campaign follows years of public service pay restraint which has held pay down. But with inflation predicted to rise to over 4 percent, the union is to fight against the pay freeze which will harm hundreds of thousands of workers and their ability to cover essential living costs.