Strike action threat as Newcastle City Council salaries cut

Nov 25 2009 by Amy Hunt, The Journal

Equalling pay will cost the council £24.78m in back pay to April 2007, which was the deadline for bringing in equal pay, as well as annual costs. Thousands of staff should be in line for a pay rise, but others will lose out.

Schools will be hit with a £5.43m bill which will have to be met from their budgets.

Under the scheme there would be 5,370 workers who would get pay rises immediately and a further 2,408 who would eventually get higher pay as a result of the maximum pay level for their job going up.

Workers whose annual salaries will fall under the scheme would be offered three-year pay protection.

Paul Woods, the city council’s director of resources, said the council had already taken steps to make sure it had enough money to cover wage rises.

He said: “We have been working very hard to make the council more efficient. As long as this package is negotiated as set out it’s in line with the budget.

“There will be no obvious impact on services or council tax, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if this cost wasn’t there we would have been able to spend those resources on services, which we can’t. If any school has difficulty we, as a council will work with them to be able to spread the cost in the future.”

Peter Bower, acting director of corporate services, said: “This will substantially simplify the council’s pay structure and make it much fairer by putting everyone into a grade which is an objective assessment of their job in a gender unbiased way.

“We have worked very hard with the trade unions so this is something they will buy into.

“There were a whole range of people like care workers, clerical staff and cleaners who already had single status issues addressed in 2004. The people we’re talking about now are more the technical and professional grades.”

Nick Forbes, the city council’s opposition leader, said: “Coming on the back of hundreds of redundancies, if true these pay cuts would be a huge slap in the face for Newcastle City Council’s workforce. I hope that assurances will be given to staff through the negotiation processes so that no-one loses out financially in the long term.”

The council’s ruling executive will be asked today to support the proposals as a starting point for negotiation with unions, which should begin on December 1.

Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside councils have all completed their single status projects, but Sunderland has yet to start.