Unions call off strike after employers offer new pay deal

Next week's general strike has been cancelled while unions consider the new deal

Unions have cancelled next week’s strike by local authority staff while they consult members on a new pay offer from the Local Government Association.

Unison, GMB and Unite have been locked in a dispute over the LGA’s previous 1% pay offer following on from three years of pay freezes.

However, Tuesday’s walk-out by staff including social workers and care workers, was postponed after the LGA revealed a new offer.

The details of the new pay proposal are:

    • a two- year deal to run from 1 January 2015 through to 31 March 2016
    • a 2.2 per cent increase on Spinal Column Points (SCPs) 11 and above (£14,880 and over)
    • higher percentage increases on SCPs 5 to 10 (to provide a new minimum hourly rate at SCP5 of £7 per hour). This would increase further to £7.06 per hour on 1 October 2015 by the deletion of SCP5
    • Non-consolidated lump sum payments of between £100 and £325 on all SCPs.

In a statement, Unison said: “All three unions have made it clear that they want to strengthen the collective bargaining machinery covering local government and schools and move quickly to jointly tackle important issues facing their members with the Local Government Association.

“Members covered by the National Joint Council for Local Government have the lowest pay in the public sector and have suffered significant attacks on their conditions of work in recent years.

“The unions will now move forward together to consult their members.”

The LGA said calling off the strike was the right decision which would now give both local authorities and unions time to consult on the proposals.

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One Response to Unions call off strike after employers offer new pay deal

  1. Pat Curran October 14, 2014 at 12:12 pm #

    It’s a step in the right direction with both sides talking and I sincerely hope there is a good enough pay offer. Just wonder when discussion will take place on the 30% pay cut this year for independent practice educators.