Council staff in wages stunner

EXCLUSIVE: Fifth face an average £3,000 cut

ALMOST a fifth of council staff face an average £3,000 pay cut — and some up to £16,000 — following the authority’s salary and grading review.

Letters have gone out to a total of 4,000 people who do 5,000 jobs, after the council harmonised terms and conditions for all manual and office-based staff.

The losers are mainly in grounds maintenance and refuse collection, where the system of paying bonuses has been replaced by a flat salary.

Other staff will see their pay increase, some will stay the same.

Teachers and other education posts are not included in the review.

Emma Alexander, executive director for performance, services and capacity, said those getting an increase are mainly lower-paid staff such as cleaners, caterers, and care workers.

Reductions will affect some white collar departments, such as accountancy and human resources.

She said the new pay grades will add 3.75 per cent to the pay bill, or £3 million a year, but council tax will not be affected as the sums have already been built into this year’s budget.

She added: “Overall, 18 per cent of staff face an average reduction in salary of £3,000 a year, which ranges from £50 to just over £16,000 in isolated cases.

“We are not expecting everyone will be pleased with this, but we have worked closely with the trade unions to evaluate our jobs and put together a package of pay, terms and conditions that both allow us to recruit and retain staff and which provides value for money.”

The council was required by law to carry out the job evaluation and pay and grading review by Government.

Three years ago Oldham paid around £7 million to about 1,700 employees, mainly women, when a rash of equal pay claims were made up and down the country.

Women workers made successful employment tribunal claims because they had been paid less than men on the same grade, who qualified for bonus payments not offered to the women.

Ms Alexander said the council had no choice but to implement the pay and grading structure, or face more potential employment claims.

She added: “It is a good news/bad news situation and for some people it will be devastating.

“If people do have a reduction, their pay will be protected until January 2012.”

A series of roadshows begin todayaround the civic buildings and in depots and other offices, she said, where there will be presentations by senior managers and members of the job evaluation team.

A staff helpline has also been opened for people to phone with queries and there will be a confidential external assistance programme for people to raise queries about finance and debt management.

A 90 day consultation period has begun and the council will make the final decision after that. The aim is to implement the new pay and grading structure from January next year.

Unison trade union chairman, Wendy Bradbury, said: “Everyone is steeling themselves for the worst in today’s economic climate. I think our helpline will be very busy.”



Council staff feeling better...

UNTIL today’s news, sickness levels at Oldham Council were falling...

New statistics show sickness absence has continued to fall across all services.

There was a reduction of nearly 24 per cent in 2009-10 compared with 2008-09. Days lost due to sickness fell from 11.07 to 8.43 per full time equivalent member of staff.

The improvement has been credited to better working practices and support systems, which have helped to manage staff issues more effectively.

Two years ago the council was accused of having the worst rate of sickness in Greater Manchester, costing every household nearly £100. Since then sickness absence rates have improved to be among the lowest rate in Greater Manchester.