Union leaders armed with giant pennies met the local government employers for a showdown over pay early this week. But, despite union pleas for this year's dispute to be resolved more quickly than last, it appeared an agreement was still some way off, as further talks were expected to start today. Representatives of GMB, Unison and Unite carried three giant-sized coins (above) to the meeting on Monday, to highlight their claim that this year's pay offer of 0.5% would leave around 150,000 of the lowest-paid workers with an increase of just three pence an hour. The unions have described the offer as ‘mean and paltry', and demanded negotiations as a ‘matter of urgency'. Unison's head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said: ‘How can the employers expect their hard-pressed workforce to exist on this breathtakingly-mean offer of a paltry 3p an hour extra – just over £1 a week, or £55 a year? ‘It is just not realistic, and we know that the employers have already put aside money for an increase of between 1.5% and 2.5%.' However, after Monday's talks, there was still no sign of resolution. A Unison spokeswoman could only say the union was ‘looking forward to further talks later this week'. It comes as Unison prepares for its annual conference in Brighton next month. Pay is likely to be high on the agenda when delegates meet at the Brighton Centre from 16 to 19 June to set policy and the campaigning agenda for the coming year. A local government group conference on pay and conditions is being held in Brighton in the run-up on 14 and 15 June, before the annual conference gets under way.
