End to Liverpool strike in sight

December 7, 2004 in Pay and conditions, Workforce

An end to the Liverpool social workers strike may be in sight,
following the agreement of Liverpool Council to return to ACAS next
Monday, writes Paul Stephenson.

The dispute, involving well over 100 social workers who have
been on indefinite strike since August, revolves around workloads
and case allocation.

UNISON senior regional officer Stephanie Thomas said the union
was hopeful agreement might be reached, but said she was concerned
the council had refused to discuss a return to work agreement on
managing the backlog of work resulting from the strike.

UNISON plans to ballot the whole of the council workforce in the
next few weeks on taking action in support of the strike, should
there be no agreement.

A council spokesperson said: “We are extremely
disappointed that the social workers are still out on strike and we
would urge them to return to work.”