Local government employers have rebuffed union calls to increase their pay offer to staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for 2024-25.
UNISON, Unite and the GMB wrote to employers urging “open meaningful pay talks” and an improved offer in the light of superior pay settlements handed out to other public sector workers by the government.
However, in response, the employers’ side reiterated their position that their offer – a rise of £1,290 or 2.5%, whichever is higher, for staff working outside of London, with those in the capital receiving rises of £1,491, £1,575 or 2.5% – was “full and final”.
Better pay deals for other public sector staff
Last month, chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that she had accepted recommendations from independent pay review bodies in relation to workers including NHS workers, teachers, police officers and staff in the armed forces.
These were worth 5-6%, with NHS staff – including social workers – given a 5.5% hike for 2024-25.
These deals are worth significantly more on average than the offer for council staff, with only the lowest-paid local authority workers due to receive a comparable percentage rise to their public sector counterparts.
In response to council employers’ offer, UNISON and Unite have decided to ballot their members on taking industrial action, with voting due to begin at the end of this month and early September. The GMB has accepted the proposal.
However, following Reeves’s announcement on public sector pay, leaders from all three unions – Clare Keough for Unite, Sharon Wilde for the GMB and Mike Short for UNISON – wrote to council employers seeking fresh dialogue on the 2024-25 settlement.
Council workers ‘need adequate pay rise too’
“It is clear that this government has recognised that the public sector workers need an adequate pay rise and a pay rise that recognises that public sector pay has fallen, over many years, so far behind the cost of living,” they wrote. “Local government workers need an adequate pay rise too.
“The problems of poverty, morale, recruitment and retention continue to affect local government staff and this urgently needs addressing.”
However, in a letter in response, employers’ secretary Naomi Cooke pointed out that the government had not given councils any more money to increase pay.
“Therefore, the national employers are unable to accede to your request and must again reaffirm the offer made on 16 May as full and final,” she wrote.
“The offer, as we explained at the time, will be difficult to fund in a number of local authorities and anything beyond it would take many more authorities well past their level of affordability.”
She said the employers would continue to make representations to the UK and devolved governments for more funding and urged UNISON and Unite to rethink their strike ballots and join the GMB in agreeing to the offer “so that employees can receive their pay award”.
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Typical of employers to try to undermine workers. There is the issue of pay but also the issues around working conditions. Social Workers, for example having to work 50+ hours weekly to try to keep abreast of their caseloads. Given a contracted 37 hour working week this equates to 13+ extra hours per week without additional pay, free labour for the employers. In my book this is exploitation
The employers and the government know that this argument has been brought up again and again for years. Why would employers need to take any notice of this, if Social Workers just keep on working overtime for no extra payment regardless of how Social Workers feel about that? If anybody had actually been told they had to work 50+ hours a week without extra pay ‘in order to keep abreast of their caseload’, they could : -raise a case about it with the union, find a different job, or leave and join an agency where you can invoice for the hours you actually work (as many have over recent times). Continuing to do it from the basis of your own conscience, just because other Social Workers around you do it, or a fear that the potential consequences of just leaving could be too great, is, basically, consenting to the continuation of feeling undervalued and exploited. Try listing on paper the advantages and disadvantages of doing it to help make a decision as to whether it is really worth carrying on or not.
I agree and disagree with you on various points, Ann. Firstly, there is NO overtime system in the UK for either Adults or Children’s Social Workers in the Local Authority, this applies to both permanent or agency staff. It is not a matter of agency staff ‘Billing’ their employer for the extra hours worked, as agency and permanent staff are contracted to work between 35-37 hours per week, and there is no agreement to pay extra, so the authority does not, and they usually offer a 1 day TOIL per month, and a ‘You can only work up 1 day per month rule’ and then you ‘lose the rest’ as ways of getting around this exploitation, and they also blame the SW for not being able to ‘Manage their time more effectively’ etc. The other aspect is the local authority would ‘go broke’ if they had to pay all of the overtime, and they also have to work within set budgets they are given by Central Government. I remember I worked once for a local authority in London who was regarded as one of the worst for high caseloads, and I worked an extra 80 hours unpaid that month (with hours and specifics all itemised as evidence) and my agency rang the Service Manager to ask who was going to pay for all of my extra hours, and she ‘Remained Silent’ on the line, and just did not answer the question, or offer any solution or compensation (i.e. take two months off). I gave my notice after 2 months as I realised my health would suffer, and it was not safe for the children I was supposed to be supporting and protecting. The bottom line is employers will not pay for work they can – and are already getting for free, so the situation will continue until people ‘Changing Careers’ like I am in the process of doing.
Exactly! That was my point.
People have to start putting their own health (physical and mental) FIRST and taking action instead of allowing themselves to be ground down.
Our case load is very complex and challenging, NHS staff work hard I’m not disputing that. However, council workers can’t decline referrals like NHS can so we get a lot of really difficult cases to deal with. If our pay is not fairly increased they will.loose a lot of staff. I have been working for the council and accepted that we will be dealing with challenging case loads as we got paid more money than NHS staff to deal with the complexity. Since the NHS have now got the 5.5% pay rise I think A LOT of council workers will leave to work for the NHS as NHS staff now get paid more than we do. Why continue working harder for less when I can get an NHS job with less responsibility, less complexity and more money
Social Work England’s professional standards include a prohibition against exploitation. What are employers doing to address this?
I’m a public health manager, services cut over the last 20 years, funding cut dramatically, the needs of the population has increased, staffing reduced and wages cut in real terms. We worked like dogs through COVID but as always, had no recognition. Prevention isn’t recognised, we’re not recognised, soon it will be too late. Prevention is better than cure, invest in prevention you then reduce hospital admissions and strain on social services….why is it so difficult to understand. You are losing experienced staff and sustainability in the services that remain, it makes no sense.
And once again, because the Local Government Unions are so big and full of too many professions with not enough focus, no one will care about those working in social care. Until there is a dedicated social care union that can actually champion social care issues – with other education staff able to join and be counted as part of teaching union – there will continue to never be any meaningful change. The amount of people in LAs who can simply do a 9-5 job and think this offer is fair will always outweigh those of us who work in undervalued area.
So basically NHS staff are more important than local government staff?
If you ask the public, I don’t think they will agree with that at all.
Send less money to Ukraine and other foreign countries and give us a better pay. Is that simple.
Look after your own people first!
shortly you’ll be wondering why you are in Ukraine fighting if you cut the weapons & missiles.
I work in education. We have a pay rise announced. Unison blocked it. It’s now been two months. Two months of needing more money that unison has stopped happening. They could have allowed the pay rises to go ahead and then continued to fight for more after. Instead we all suffer because of a bunch of people in higher paid union jobs.
Unison needs new management.
I have just read that train drivers have been offered a 15% pay rise over three years
There we have it—social workers are perpetually the last in line! We champion the rights of others yet often falter when it comes to advocating for our own. As a single parent, I find myself grappling with the ever-mounting pressures of rent, groceries, and an array of bills. This meagre “pay rise” might have sufficed if not for the relentless surge in living costs… or if commuting expenses weren’t spiralling out of control. In reality, this is NO pay increase at all, as the escalating costs continue to erode its value. This happening for years. Also blaming Unions because what they do -they just bending the knee all the time.
I just don’t understand how NHS, Teachers and other similar roles can have a pay rise double that of Social Workers. Surely it should be under the same umbrella . . .
With the cost of living what is offered is a pay cut, we are literally making sacrifices due to rising costs.
I knew the salary expectation when I registered and never thought I would get rich, but is it that shocking I want to be treated fairly in comparison to similar professions. Why are we the poor relations.
During Covid I was going into people’s houses, hospitals and care homes. We got no recognition, such a under valued profession. It’s a sad reality how little we are valued for all the hard work we do and positive work we do in the community.
All the more reason why Social Workers need to take industrial action. Children’s services would collapse even further in the absence of “goodwill” working on the part of Social Workers for which they receive no additional pay and which I would describe as exploitation by their employers.
No duplicate comment
The pace that this is happening is absolutely demoralising
Get in a room and sort this out will you
If it’s full and final mentioned twice now find out why and work on the future it’s demoralising everyone having lengthy protracted engagement although it’s nice to get a bump close to Christmas as mentioned by others it impacts on their welfare benefits
Oh and my council are now charging me for parking at my place of work so that’s another cost I can’t afford so can you sort this out quickly please
I work in a Lancashire county council care home, I worked all through covid , every shift when I go into work I get slapped, hit, bitten, skin torn from my arms and face, I have to act in the best interest for that person I am told. I deal with everything from stoma care to all other bodily functions.
I have so much training to do every year, I get called in or receive messages on my days off and when I am on holiday to go in.
I feel we are not valued and I feel every local government worker should receive a fair deal like the NHS staff.
Same here..a measly grade 5 too 🙁 underpaid for the responsibility we have
I work has a tree surgeon for a local council and apart from the last 2 years our pay raises have been well below inflation so we are thousands behind what we should be on and we are we are very short staffed on the front line because we can’t get people in because of the low wages so come on treat the public sector has equals and give us the same has the rest
Being a cleaner for 16yrs and I believe we are the lowest paid public sector workers, without us the poo would hit the fan, officers, schools, gp surgery’s and many more would become filthy, we all deserve the proper amount of pay regardless of our job title.
I work hard to achieve a performance related pay award each year, as part of my yearly development. I’ve been in my job for 3 years and have received local government pay awards and an increase related to performance. But despite this, according to the current minimum wage, I still only earn a little over the minimum wage. There’s more to this than simple pay awards. For those of us at the very bottom of the scales I think a more in depth investigation needs to be performed.
Performance related bonuses for corruption Dishonesty inaccurate record keeping this is waste of tax payers monies
These examples of exploitation and bullying by supposedly progressive local authority employers beggars belief. How widespread is this?
Social workers need to work to rule and agree to work only the hours they are contracted to work. AND strike like all the other professions have done.
I don’t know why anyone thought labour would be better for local government workers, they only had to look to wales and how poorly they’ve been treated since devolution. The only difference is that they constantly blamed the Tory government in Westminster, let’s see who they blame now?
Why don’t social workers have their own union like nurses, teachers, police officers etc? This is why we get rubbish pay and no one advocating for our working conditions.
Why are social workers so bad at advocating for ourselves ? When we do it everyday for others.
Any of you employees out there working for the Council on £23,000 a year or less you are actually being offered a 5.5% pay rise. The probability of getting anything greater than that is zero. Yes we all believe we should be paid better for what we do.
This is where local government are sly with their pay awards. Offer all employees the same pay award, the lower paid are getting a 5.5% award where as anyone on £30,000 or more is only getting a 4.3% or less payrise.
As a majority of Council workers are probably on £25,000 or less when this goes to a ballot most will just accept it.
Before anyone questions where I am coming from with this, I am a bin lorry driver on approx £27,000 a year, so this years pay rise is worth around 4.7% to me
I will sit back with the rest of the council workers waiting for ballots that will come to nowt, the offer we have been given will be agreed in October/ November. Nice little bit of back pay for Christmas
Oh sorry forgot to mention our wonderful unions not taking in to account anyone out their on Universal Credits will have their December payments reduced due to large back pay in November
Thanks for considering your low paid workers Unions
Social workers are well paid for doing less being Dishonest keeping inaccurate records about patients or service users covering up corruption
Sharon Harper.
You are spot on. You and your colleagues are as important and crucial in an organisation as any other and should be valued as such.
Teaching Assistants on 14k per year for a 30hr week (cannot fo more hours, paid pro-rata across the year and yes they only get the same holiday pay (5 weeks depending on service so don’t get 17weeks paid hols as people think!) And as pay rise is worked out pro-rata so again pay rise is not the offer in fill but approx £900 per year, but teachers get more than double.
They are an essential part of the education system and it is about time proper pay levels are looked at not just oayrises!.
The pay review needs urgent attention for the lower bands. We have been all categorised together. Where is the incentive in progressing within the council. The minimum wage has been increased but the people just above this do not seem to be moving up the pay ladder at all. I have a 17 year old apprentice working next to me on almost the same pay . Its demoralising. Give us a decent pay rise and keep your staff happy and improve staff retention. Many people I know will be looking for other jobs outside of the council.
Another review getting dragged out until November/December!
Roll on November then we can get the promise of a pay spine review and work towards next year nonsense
Again we will be kept waiting for the pay rise. The employer will be holding on to a large sum gaining interest. With the current interest rate, will the back pay be paid with interest?
Train drivers have been offered a 14.25% pay rise over three years, and backdated. Local authority employers are offering just 2.5%. There has to be something wrong here. The train drivers secured their offer through industrial action. Social Workers take note
The same role for me in the NHS now pays £3500 more than the local authority salary, I don’t want to leave but it is becoming incredibly tempting, particularly when you consider NHS social workers get more annual leave and more employee benefits.
I do not read anything about MPs and government ministers sacrificing their £90,000 plus annual salary and vast expenses. Yet they expect this from much lower paid workers. Labour, you should be ashamed
Social Workers should be paid by Central Government as are other professions. Local Authorities will never achieve or aim to provide the wage increases achieved for other professions or for example, the train drivers. In hindsight I would not choose Social Work as a profession as we are undervalued in comparison to other professions. It is an absolute disgrace the way we continue to be treated.