D-Day for Shropshire Council staff
Friday 30th September 2011, 3:15PM BST.
ABOUT 6,500 Shropshire Council workers were facing decision day over their jobs today – accept a new contract on lower pay or face dismissal.
Council chiefs and union leaders said they were close to reaching a deal following talks yesterday to avoid further strike action in the dispute over the proposals to cut staff pay by 5.4 per cent and introduce new terms and conditions.
Employees who agree to the terms will be re-hired tomorrow on lower pay and on inferior terms and conditions.
Those workers who decide to leave as they cannot accept the changes will not be entitled to a pay-off.
But Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith, from Shropshire Council, today said he expected the ‘vast majority’ of staff to turn up at work on Monday as normal.
Council leader Keith Barrow and officials from Unite, GMB and Unison held talks yesterday with the aim of reaching an agreement.
Union bosses hope an agreement can be made to scrap 2.7 per cent of the pay cut which is due to come into force next year.
Alan James, branch secretary for Shropshire Unison, said they were aiming to ensure that the second phase of the cut would, at worst, be 1.9 per cent. He said: “The discussions have been open and productive.”
In a statement, Joan Clarke, from GMB, and Di Phillips, branch chairwoman from Unite, said: “The negotiations will continue focusing on year two of the cuts and to a degree we are confident that we can reach an agreement.”
Council leaders say they need to make £76 million of savings and that the pay cut will prevent having to make up to 500 redundancies.
By Russell Roberts
Most Commented
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
is this legal?
i doubt that
Report abuse
Are the councillors going to have their generous payments reduced accordingly, or maybe they will up their expenses now more money has been saved.
Report abuse
They have already taken a 5% reduction in allowances and the same hit on travel expenses etc.
Report abuse
But Councillor Spud that 5% decrease in 2010 was after a big increase in 2009, if you expect staff to go back to 2009 wages you should set an example and reduce your allowances to what they were before that big increase.
We will await the press release announcing that.
Report abuse
What point is a 5% reduction in Councillors allowances when they voted themselves a 100% increase following Unitary Status in 2009 – Just a bunch of self centred money grabbers, they dont care about the people of Shropshire its just a power trip and money for nothing for Shropshire Councillors
Report abuse
Spud, Councillors have agreed a 5% cut to the basic allowance. The leader, Cllr Barrow, for example, gets three times the basic allowance so, in effect, he is taking a cut of between 1 and 2%. If you are going to provide info from the inside, get your facts straight.
Report abuse
The 5% cut is applied to all allowances.
Report abuse
You are correct that the 5% was off the base allowance (ie £600 off £12000), BUT the leader gets 3 times the reduced allowance (ie 3 x £11400). Which is still a 5% reduction overall.
Report abuse
Not quite so quick to reply when you are challenged on the facts are you councillor? – don’t worry we’ll remember at the next elections
Report abuse
I was away for a few days so will now answer your points.
When the District and County councils merged to form the unitary Council there was a reduction in the number of councillors covering the area. The 74 new Unitary councillors not only carried on doing the tasks of the old County councillors, but picked up in addition, the responsibilities of the old district councillors. This included planning and liscensing.
An independent outside body reviewed the allowances to be paid for the new roles and these were accepted by all parties.
These allowances remained the same until April this year and then were reduced by 5%. Unlike staff, councillors do not receive annual pay increments.
Report abuse
Spud,
You are obviously a councillor in an elected position of authority. Can you please use your own name when adding comments so that you electorate can take account of your views.
Unlike me you are in a position of public office and responsibility. You may want to get your colleagues who also comment to at least follow the example of Martin Taylor Smith who does use his real name.
As an elected official trying to hide your views behind a pseudonom isn’t really cricket.
Report abuse
Unlike staff? Cllr. Spud you must know that staff dont get increments, you froze them!
Report abuse
why only 5% for councllors but 5.4% for staff. seems odd to me and unfair
Report abuse
Councillor Spud – I didn’t ask you to justify your allowances – I asked you to lead by example and return to the allowances of 2009 – which is what you are asking your staff to do with their wages.
Can you tell us what your net increase in allowances is compared to 2009 – then compare that to the net decrease in pay for staff.
We may be ‘in this together’ but it appears some are more ‘in it’ than others.
Report abuse
PH7
Many thanks for the mention. Happy to take part in debates on areas of my portfolio or affecting my ward..
Martin
Report abuse
No payments mean breach of contract as these are not minor changes. There are bucketloads of case law to this effect.
Report abuse
haha gutted, the gravy train has come to a halt for these public sector beurocrats, time to get a real job in the real world, see how its like to work a 12 hour day with no pension and no lunch breaks
Report abuse
Harold..
More fool you if you work 12 hours with no breaks…Only yourself to blame…..
Report abuse
Perhaps Harold is trying to build up a company, from experience sometimes you have to work 20 hr. days. For you other lot who seem quite content to work 9-5 with all the perks,there is a different world out there,as you will quickly find out. You will find that there is no union to fight for you, your on your own, this will come as a complete shock to most of you. You will find that wages are linked to skill and productivity,What will you all do?????
Report abuse
John please enlighten us on your career?
Report abuse
Mike. A skilled engineer most of my working life.From an apprentice in 1957 to a Works Manager in 1977,Then worked for BT, before starting my own firm.
I will take a guess at yours. A Overpaid Social Worker.
Report abuse
Well first of all by saying all social workers are overpaid just highlights what an arrogant and ignorant individual you are! actually I, like you, served engineering apprenticeship then worked as a skilled electrician and alarms engineer before joining BT and worked my way into Management. I am a member of a union and do believe in social justice but not supporting the idle.
Report abuse
Really 12 hour shifts?
Do you believe that people work 5 days with 12 hour shifts?
Listen stop spouting rubbish from your soapbox. If all council employees are beauracrats then imagine a world without public sector employees.
No Bin Collections
No Health Support for the Poor
No SureStart support for families
No Child Protection Teams
No Road Management
So imagine a world where bins are overflowing, the ill are left to suffer/die, the poor families are unable to get help to give their children the opportunities, children are left to be abused by sick people and the roads are chaotic due to accidents due to poorly managed systems.
Harold your world sounds so great to live in.
Report abuse
Oh dear you poor thing perhaps you should have got an education?
Report abuse
Choo choo! Let me tell you Harold that a 12 hour day with no breaks is illegal and I would suggest joining a trade union rather pronto. Have you ever really though about what the public sector delivers?. I’m talking about all those services that make your life a little more comfortable. I imagine its fun to think of pin stripe suited bureaucrats (note the correct spelling) on a free lunch but the reality is so so different.
Report abuse
we had this at my firm a couple of years back, put on a 4 day week for 6 months and no over time, it really hurt and i am still in debt from that period so i feel it is pay back time for them now to get some of the same, fairs fair, we are all in this together, no special exceptions for council workers they have to pay off some of the debt for us too
Report abuse
This was probably a result of your firm not getting orders due to a global downturn Gez. Very unfortunate. But why the desire to give council workers a kicking?. If it makes you feel better.
No it probably won’t but the result will be vastly reduced public services. There’ll be no reduction in council tax and likely to be charges to take your rubbish away. Oh and no street lights either so crimes certainly going to rise.
Report abuse
gez-
I am really sorry to hear that you have suffered as you have. However, I can’t understand what kind of world we are living in where people’s response to their own hurt is to be glad that others are also suffering. You say “it is pay back time” as though somehow people who work for Shropshire Council are responsible for what happened to you.
I don’t work for Shropshire Council and am very critical of many of the decisions and priorities of its administration, but I am grateful to the staff who empty my bin, run the local library, and helped to care for my Grandma in her old age. We are not “all in this together”- most of us are losing services we need and value and watching our wages go down and prices rocket, while others are treating themselves to flash new offices and iPads and supping free champagne at the Flower Show. I think that the anger you understandably feel at your personal situation is misdirected if you aim it at the grass roots of Shropshire Council’s employees.
Report abuse
The truth be told Shropshire Council are overstaffed anyway and a reduction in staff would not affect services. Makes me wonder when they actually do any work of real substance. Surely, this has gone on too long.
Its a joke!
Report abuse
Harold, it is spelt bureaucrats and working 12 hours without a lunch break is illegal, more fool you if you worked that way.
It’s worth remembering that the vast majority of council workers are low paid, for example the drivers and helpers who take my son to Severndale and who are starting to wonder whether it’s worth going to work.
Maybe they should go on Welfare instead.
The only people who are in this together are the workers whether they believe themselves to be “working – class” or “middle – class” private or public sector, because Eton boy and his mob certainly aren’t “in it” with us.
Tory or Labour it’s all the same and we the public have slept walked our way into a situation where we’ve allowed ourselves to suffer for the misdeeds and mismanagement of others.
Not enough engagement in politics, protest and seeing how the country is really run.
We deserve what we get.
Report abuse
Good, they should be paid less, most of them earn more than me and i dont even get a pension so now they know how i feel
Report abuse
let them eat cake
Report abuse
I am employed on a casual basis as a sports coach by Shropshire Council.
Although I was aware that I would receive a cut in pay, However, I was not aware of how big that cut would be. I now know that I have been given a pay cut of slightly over 8.25%. On the face of it, this seems very harsh in light of the 2.7% cut forced on contracted council employees.
Perhaps the worst thing is the fact that in a letter dated 28 September 2011, I am informed that this change is effective from 01 July 2011.
Fortunately, I work full time for a private sector employer.
Cheers
I Brow
Report abuse
Let me make this very clear from the start. I’m not a strong union supporter.
However I’m finding it hard to get my head around this situation with employees of shropshire County Council.
I would say the unions have fought hard over the years to get their members the pay and conditions which they now have.
Now we have a situation where the council is going to affectively fire and then rehire their employees but on less wages and less benefits.
Surely firing employees and then taking them on again with new contracts which mean less wages, benefits etc, is illegal.
If this is legal then I can see real trouble ahead when other councils and large firms jump on the band wagon.
Report abuse
some kind of serious cow boy employer there, this is disgusting behaviour, sack the board not the workers i say
Report abuse
It’s great isn’t it. Bankers waltz off with millions and millions of pounds (and are still doing so at our expense) and for some reason that is the fault of public sector workers and their cushy conditions.
This Government and their newspaper magnate chums have done a fine job of redirecting the heat.
It’s logical isn’t it. Why blame city bankers when you can blame care-workers and bin-men.
Report abuse
So really they are arguing over half a percent and to do so they went on strike for a day which costs them about half a percent of a years pay
Genius
:)
Report abuse
if any of these workers were any good at their jobs they would say two fingers and get a job somewhere else. the very fact that they take this suggests they cant get a better offer on the open market so the temptation must be to go for even more cuts in their pay as they are clealy an easy soft touch
Report abuse
Which alternative jobs would you suggest? 2.5 million unemployed, take a look at the jobs pages. I have looked and there aren’t any that I have any chance of getting – over qualified or under-experienced – I don’t have a job nor any prospect of one in the forseeable future but I still don’t think that that justifies treating public sector workers like this.
Report abuse
wouldnt the option of voluntarily or complusorarily if needs be putting people on unpaid leave be a better solution, not nice to lose pay but atleast you get the time off which if you;re skint can be used to go and earn more money or if not well atleast you get some time off
Report abuse
The answer is zero. Not all councillors are ex County.
Report abuse
Ok to make it clearer – how much were the councillors, cabinet member and leaders allowances in 2009 and what are they now, what is the percentage increase compared to the percentage decrease to staff for the same period?
Report abuse
Get rid of all those expensive politically-correct ‘non jobs’ and put the money that’s saved towards protecting vital frontline service.
We need bin men and nurses – we don’t need diversity officers or climate change advisors.
Report abuse
Look I just want to say as a self employed man who pays alot of tax and gets a lot of red tape off the Council that I do not blame the Council workers and I dont like this us and them attitude I read on here. I want to pay less business rates and of course the Council needs to modernise and reform, but cutting peoples pay is not the correct way to do this. They are good people and deserve good pay.
Private and public we are all in this together so please can people think before they write and not be so rude and seem to enjoy peoples suffering
Thank you for listening.
Report abuse
Hardly D-day where brave men faced slaughter, a few percent off your pay its nothing really is it, after tax its half that so dont compare it to risking your life, people will cope if they tighten their belt, one less family holiday a year or get rid of the second car thats all it takes
Report abuse
i wouldnt miss it if the whole council didnt exist so long as the bin gets emptied who gives a damn?
Report abuse
If the shropshire council staff are anything like the councillors then i have no sympthathy for them they are useless the lot of them
Report abuse