Council employees may strike

The three unions representing 1.6 million workers employed by local authorities are moving closer to industrial action over a 1% pay offer from the LGA local government employers’ association.

Unite and UNISON announced that they would be balloting for industrial action following the overwhelming rejection of the offer by members of both unions in consultative ballots at the end of April.

The GMB said it would also ballot for industrial action after the results of its members’ consultation was confirmed on 16 May. The ballots will be completed by the end of June, with co-ordinated industrial action possible in early July.

The employers’ offer involves higher percentage pay increases for around 50,000 workers on the lowest pay rates, but 1% for the 90% of workers earning above £7.71 per hour.

This follows three years of pay freezes and a 1% pay rise last year, leaving real terms pay reduced by almost 20% since the coalition government came to power.

UNISON’s head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said: “Our members have made it clear that this pay offer is the straw that breaks the camel’s back after years of pay freezes and below-inflation rises.”

Unite national officer Fiona Farmer said local government staff “have been the whipping boys for the coalition’s austerity policies”, meaning that “services used by some of the most vulnerable in society have been viciously pruned back”.

www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/strike-ballot-for-council-and-schools-members

www.unison.org.uk/at-work/local-government/key-issues/local-government-pay/home

www.unitetheunion.org/news/local-government-workers-to-vote-on-strike-action-after-decisive-rejection-of-insulting-pay-offer/