A bitter war of words has broken out between unions and employers as town halls face two days of industrial action. Hundreds of thousands of town halls workers across Britain will walk out in protest this week at the Government's pay offer. Local government employees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were set to stage a two-day stoppage yesterday (Wednesday) and today (Thursday) over a 2.45% pay offer, which they claim is below inflation. Around 600,000 members of union Unison and 70,000 members of Unite were expected to strike, affecting every service from refuse collection to social care. Local Government Employers played down the extent of disruption threatened, claiming only around 20% of council employees across the country would be involved. Employers managing director, Jan Parkinson, said: ‘It is disappointing that the unions are taking council employees out on strike when only a small minority of their membership voted for industrial action. ‘Strikes will not change the fact that our last offer was our final offer.' But Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis, said: ‘This is a prime example of wishful thinking. Instead of wasting its time with dubious snapshot surveys of HR managers, the LGA should be concentrating on getting this strike sorted out.' And Unite's national secretary for the public sector Peter Allenson added: ‘Our members work very hard providing essential public services and they will not carry the can for inflation by taking pay cuts.' Councils have been taking emergency measures to deal with a large-scale walk out. Ellesmere Port and Neston BC chief executive, Brenda Harvey, said: ‘Every effort will be made to make sure some level of service will continue to be available to the most vulnerable.'
