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Union bosses have urged council employers to resist the temptation of turning to local pay bargaining as a way of cutting costs. The move, if carried out, would result in different pay levels being set regionally, and even across individual councils, to reflect local market conditions, and comes during a stand-off between employers and unions over the latest pay round. Unison's head of local government, Heather Wakefield, told the Association for Public Service Excellence conference in Gateshead last week that splitting national pay bargaining into ‘regional or even individual bargaining' could undermine the gains made by women. ‘There are huge issues around equal pay and there needs to a be a new pact between local authorities and their workforces,' she said. A consultation carried out by Local Government Employers over the summer asked for views on how pay and benefits in local government should be delivered in the future. An LGE spokeswoman told The MJ this week that the review was designed to get an ‘indication of travel' before discussing long-term pay plans with unions. She added: ‘We're not saying we don't want national pay bargaining, we just have to go back and look at the Green Book, and see if it is still fit for use,' she added. Sir Steve Bullock, chair of the LGE, said last month that those consulted were in favour of ‘simplicity and flexibility' in national pay agreements, and most were after a ‘single national pay agreement, slimmed down and simplified to facilitate local action'. The move came as town halls braced themselves for a series of strikes as members of Britain's biggest public service union ballot on industrial action. Local government workers are being asked by Unison if they are in favour of a two-day strike over a revised offer of 2.475%, and a new minimum rate of £6 an hour. Ballot papers are to be sent to all members on 5 October after the union's industrial action committee met last week to decide. The move was heavily criticised by chair of the employers' side, Cllr Brian Baldwin, who said: ‘It must be borne in mind that if the pay settlement is too high, local authorities will have to make unpleasant decisions, including cutting frontline services and laying off staff, neither of which either the unions or the employers want to see.' But at a fringe meeting of the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth this week, Ms Wakefield warned public sector workers' morale was at rock-bottom and pay was the ‘major problem'. She claimed £2bn a year was being spent on agency workers in the public sector, and the ‘marketisation' of services was not producing results.

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FINANCE

Local government equal pay cut fear

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