Local government staff will stage fair pay protests across the country today in an effort to highlight the ‘dire’ state of current wages.
Marking the fifteenth anniversary of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage in 1999, Unison will hold a formal protest day outside town halls and workplaces throughout the UK.
According to the trade union, the lowest paid local government employees have seen an 18% fall in real terms earnings since the statutory rate came into force.
‘Local government workers and the services they provide have faced four years of devastating cuts under this Tory-led Government and today our members are saying enough is enough,’ Unison's head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said.
‘The National Minimum Wage was introduced to protect workers who are most vulnerable to low pay. It was not designed as a tool to benchmark the pay of skilled workers delivering essential public services.’
It is thought that over half a million local government workers earn less than the current Living Wage, which is £8.80 in London and £7.65 across the rest of the country.
Wakefield added: ‘Three quarters of the local government workforce are women, who are increasingly undervalued and who are not prepared to sit back and let their families slide further into poverty. What we desperately need is a commitment from the Government to implement a Living Wage.’
Earlier this month, a majority of council local government staff were offered a 1% pay increase by the National Employers.
Unison, Unite and GMB – who collectively represent 1.6million local government workers – are consulting members on the offer. Unite branded the deal ‘insulting’ and warned industrial action by its members was ‘very much on the cards’.
However cllr Sian Timoney, chair of the Employers’ Side, said the offer was a ‘fair deal’ for employees that balanced their commitment to increase pay with the responsibility to address ‘significant financial pressures’.
Unveiling the Budget, chancellor George Osborne said the Government was ‘continuing with pay restraint in the public sector,’ which remained ‘an essential part of maintaining sound finances and economic stability’.
Photo: Amanda Kendal/UNISON