Loading ...A union has recommended that members reject employers’ pay offer to council staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Unite – one of three unions that negotiate pay on behalf of local authority workers – said it would hold consultative votes on the proposed 3.2% pay rise and were urging members to reject the offer.
It warned that industrial action could follow this summer, should members follow its advice, though any walkouts would have to be ratified through formal strike ballots.
The national employers for local government services tabled the offer earlier this month, describing it as their “full and final” proposal for pay for the 2025-26 financial year and saying it would add pressure to already stretched council budgets.
The proposal is above the rate of inflation in the 12 months to March 2025 – 2.6% – according to the government’s preferred consumer prices index (CPI) measure.
However, not only is fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility projecting that CPI will rise to 3.2% later this year, but the proposed pay rise is below the broader CPIH measure of inflation, which also includes owner occupiers’ housing costs. This was 3.4% in the 12 months to March 2025.
In response to the proposal, Unite criticised both its level and a lack of negotiation with unions on the part of employers before tabling it.
“This is a very disappointing pay offer for our members, which is why our local government representatives have rightfully and unanimously recommended rejection,” said national officer for local authorities Clare Keough.
“For the fourth year in a row, the national employers have also disgracefully failed to negotiate with Unite, attempting to force through these pitiful pay rises. Any industrial action will be of their own making. We are calling on council leaders to come to the negotiating table and offer fair pay.”
Fellow union the GMB has said it is meeting with members to discuss next steps, while the largest union, UNISON, is due to discuss its response next week.
UNISON head of local government Mike Short said: “With household bills still rising, council and school staff need a decent pay award after years of below-inflation deals and deep cuts to local government services.
“It’s vital central government also plays its part through sustained investment in local authorities. UNISON will meet to discuss the offer next week before deciding next steps.”
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GMB and unison dragging it out as usual 2 weeks after the offer was made, absolute disgrace this lot. Every year it’s the same rubbish being spewed out. There all in the pockets of each other an absolute shambles as usual.
Actually the last couple of years, it was primarily unite’s balloting and strike mandates on small individual employer basis that delayed the process.
They’re quick at the accept or not initial ballot with recommendations. But the follow up work and applying logic to the results was really poor, slow and ineffective.
Unison to a degree. Last year had dropped a clanger by ignoring how many nil replies they got on the initial pay ballot, and skewed the rhetoric about how many people wanted to reject (but those that don’t vote are effectively not supporting active action). When you upscale the responses vs vote vs total members. They were always well below the required turnout thresholds but ignored it.
The pay ballot should be asking if they’re accept or not, if not that this is effectively supporting moving to industrial action ballot. But please please please, stop dragging things out when ‘80% want to strike’, but it’s based on like only 20-30% of eligible members bothering to return their vote on pay in the first place.
Nil response is as good as saying I’m not willing to be active in action. Otherwise surely you would take the effort and actively respond!
Unison last year saw this and still decided to then ballot for a strike mandates “ The consultation result was that 80.77% of members voted to reject vote on a 29.09% turnout” (taken from https://unisonwestsussex.org.uk/news/njc-pay-industrial-action-ballot/ )
For some additional mathematical context… this meant only 23.49% of eligible members voted to reject the pay offer last year. Everyone else (76.51%) either voted to accept, or didn’t feel strongly enough to return a vote either way. i.e 76.51% DID NOT REJECT THE PAY OFFER.
But the whole process still got drawn out with more ballots through to end Oct / Nov.
To think they’d then get a ballot over the required thresholds with these initial figures was ridiculous when you would need 50.1% of members to vote, and then 50.1% of those to vote for strike action.
Unite and GMB seem to have a more cohesive member base, but unfortunately the smaller over all representation needs to be considered, no point have standalone strikes again (like Wrexham etc) that held up national pay agreements for everyone.
The 3 unions need to somehow coordinate to effectively a one ballot, one mandate collective approach.
I dont understand why gmb and unison our now saying they are considering the offer from the government and my union unite are saying we should ballot for a reject of the offer but sorry gmb and unison let us down last year and the year before that not getting the votes it’s seeming the same story every year all about back pay in December.
Yes. Well 3.2% backdated up to Dec isn’t a bad Christmas package. It’s ridiculous we have to tell ourselves this every year. The system is broken.