Union urges council employees to avoid pay package (From Western Telegraph)

Union urges council employees to avoid pay package

4:40pm Saturday 19th January 2013 in News

Unison has urged its 2,000+ members not to sign up to a new package of pay, terms and conditions being offered by Pembrokeshire County Council.

The public service trade union launched its “Don’t sign” campaign on Friday, with the council set to send letters to the majority of staff by the end of January.

Unison said it would be meeting its members in the coming weeks to discuss the package.

Vic Dennis, Unison Pembrokeshire county branch secretary, said the package would have a “detrimental effect” on its members, and that it believed a fairer package could be achieved.

“We have continually tried to negotiate with the council, but they have not budged. We even encouraged them to get an external expert to look at the fairness of results, but this again was refused.”

Mr Dennis said the union hoped the council would be prepared to take part in a “meaningful negotiation”

with members over the coming weeks once it understood the strength of feeling on the matter, to get a “fairer deal”

for members.

A county council spokesman said the authority was undertaking the pay and grading review to address “long-standing issues” with regards to pay and inequality in its workforce, along with all other English and Welsh local authorities. The spokesman said it had been working on the review for a “long period”

with the trade unions “fully consulted”.

The spokesman added: “Unfortunately the authority has not yet been able to reach an agreement with the trade unions on a solution to this matter and is now intending to consult directly with its workforce on a new, fair, affordable pay structure (compliant with the law) on equal pay. In the meantime consultations with trade unions will continue.

“The proposed settlement has been reached in the context of limited resources at a time when the council is facing considerable cost pressures.”