Council workers ask for 6% to ‘catch up and match up’

(14/01/08) Town hall unions including UNISON, GMB and TGWU-Unite have agreed a pay claim for this year that would give more than one million local government workers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales a payrise of 6% or 50p an hour – whichever is the greater.

The claim would take the wages of the lowest paid workers up to £6.50 an hour – a step towards the £6.75 that poverty experts say is the minimum needed to live on.

Unions said it was intended to be a ‘catch up and match up’ claim, to recoup losses from below-inflation pay awards since 2004 and to keep up with inflation over the coming year.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON’s national secretary for local government, said: “Despite the headline figure, this is a modest claim.

“No-one could argue that an increase of 50p an hour fuels inflation. Over the past three years local government workers’ pay has increased by less than the rate of inflation, so we are starting from a low base. We need to make sure that they catch up with the rest of the public sector and that they are cushioned against inflation over the coming year.

She added: “The government’s 2% limit is just not on. It is half the rate of inflation and represents a real pay cut for loyal, hard-working public-sector workers, two-thirds of whom are women.

"They are struggling to make ends meet with the ever-increasing spiral of housing and fuel price rises.”

UNISON is working with other public-sector unions, through the TUC, to campaign for a fair deal for all public sector workers.

The 2004-7 pay agreements gave an increase of 11.4% over three years, during which inflation rose by 12.5% and average earnings by 13.4%. The 2007-2008 award was for 2.475% and 3% for the lowest paid – inflation was more than 4% over that period

The claim covers all grades of workers in local government, including refuse collection, school meals, social workers, administrators, cleaners, teaching assistants, parks and leisure workers and librarians.

UNISON in Local government

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