PAY CUT LATEST!


The Local Government Association (LGA) confirmed that the employers will make no pay offer this year, 2011 - the second year running.

They will not even honour George Osbourne's promise for a minimal £250 increase for those earning less than £21,000.

The LGA have made clear their opinion that any pay rise is unaffordable given the size of the government cuts and have cited the need to protect jobs.

Quite frankly this does not wash with those employed in local government. Most councils budgetted for pay increases last year which remained unpaid because of the stance taken by the LGA. Most councils are making wholesale cuts of staff and services beyond those that would be required to cut back simply for the sake of following a right wing dogma to cut public services.

Also why it is reasonable that staff are being asked to take a pay cut again to fund public services given - we are already paying more than our fair share toward clearing up the mess left by the bankers of this country!

We believe that staff should be given a pay rise.

• Inflation is running high - fuel and food inflation, neccessties of life are expected to top 10% later this year.
• LG Staff have taken below inflation increases already in 5 of the last 7 years
• Since 2007 staff have taken an effective pay cut of around 10%
• The lowest paid are getting pennies above the minimum wage - to the extent that when this increases in October the lowest SCP will have to be removed!

In addition the ConDem government is expecting you all to take a further pay cut next year when they try and increase our pension contributions. We know this is being wrapped up as making pension schemes more affordable. However, our scheme was already reviewed and our contributions increased to make this so. We understand it is the intention that extra paid by the staff will be used not to increase the funding of the scheme but to reduce the employers contributions. This will mean we will simply be paying more to get less and to get that much later on! It also means that the staff will effectively be paying out of their own pockets to make up for the contributions holidays taken by a large number of LG employers which caused the original funding difficulties.

UNISON and the other LG unions shall of course be trying tirelessly to try and improve our position.

We'll keep you posted but the latest can always be found at www.unison.org.uk

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