Unions agree - we need £1,000 or 5% next year

The Joint Trade Unions who represent local government staff on the Scottish Joint Council, have agreed UNISON's proposals for the pay claim to be submitted next month.

The claim is for;

· A one year settlement from 1 April 2008

· £1,000 or 5% whichever is the greater

· An increase in annual leave of 3 days, setting the minimum leave at 23 days

· An additional one days public holiday

The claim will now be submitted to the employers as soon as possible to give them time to deliver their initial response at the next meeting of the negotiators on 14 November.

Douglas Black, UNISON Regional Officer and Trade Union Side Secretary said, "Our claim represents a fair reward for the work that local government staff put into delivering our essential public services. It ensures a pay increase which keeps pace with inflation for all employees and delivers an element of 'bottom loading' for the lowest paid."

Stephanie Herd, Chair of UNISON's Scottish Local Government Committee said, "Spinal Column Point 3 currently pays £5.99 per hour, a mere 47p above the National Minimum Wage. A flat rate of £1,000 would increase this minimum payment to £6.51. A modest step towards alleviating the effects of low pay on our members".

The claim also includes additional annual leave and public holiday entitlement. This attempts to redress the fact that the basic starting holiday entitlement for local government staff is less generous than for most employees in both the public and private sectors.

Negotiations in the months to come will be challenging and difficult as they take place against the background of Single Status implementation, the headlong pursuit of efficiency savings by the Scottish Government and the influence of public sector pay policy.

However this claim is both necessary and realistic as Scottish Local Government staff continue to be treated less favourably than other groups of public sector workers.

Stephanie added, "It is vital that branches get the details of this claim around their members and begin to plan campaigning work to get our message over to councils.

"At a time when there are many new councillors and a much wider variety of political groups with a say in the running of local government, we should be contacting councillors and groups to build support for our case."

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