ONE IN FOUR COUNCIL WORKERS REJECT NEW DEAL

08-01-2008

The Stirrer can reveal that more than 5,000 Birmingham Council workers have rejected their new contracts following the Pay and Grading review – stats which will pile the pressure on management now the unions are balloting for industrial action.  We’ve also discovered that the Single Status agreement will add £27 million to the local authority’s wage bill.

The information has come following a Freedom of Information request lodged last month, and is accurate as of last Friday, January 4.

At that time, 23,000 employees had been issued with new terms and conditions and according to a Council spokesman 5,694 had formally turned down their offer – a rejection rate of approximately 25%.

It’s possible that number of refuseniks could be even higher of course, because we don’t know how many have actively accepted the deal.  Many workers have simply not responded and could yet seek legal redress.

In any event, it underlines the considerable degree of unhappiness inside the Council House and suggests that strikes or some other form of action are a distinct possibility.

The Council says that it’s total wage bill (including pensions and NI) is expected to grow from £677 in this financial year to £704 million (excluding inflation) by 2010/2011 when the three year pay protection period ends.

That’s an overall increase of around 4% - contradicting claims by some union officials that the Cabinet Member for Equalities Alan Rudge was seeking “no overall increase” in expenditure despite Single Status.

We also asked why staff couldn’t be shown the comparative data on which co-workers wages are being assessed – this, after all, is the only way in which they can find out if they are being fairly treated.

According to the Council, they are “seeking legal advice on what information it is able to disclose under law”.

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