NJC Pay consultation – we got to do better next time!

The NJC committee met this morning and the outcome of consultation on the 1% offer was a 59% to 41% majority to accept. So in a week when a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) claimed that wages have fallen more in real terms during the current economic downturn than ever before, the 3 local government unions (GMB, UNISON and Unite) will be signing up to a further erosion in real pay levels for hundreds of thousands of local government workers.
http://www.ifs.org.uk/pr/fs_june2013_launch_pr.pdf

There will be no bigger challenge in the year ahead for UNISON to build on the growing mood for action. For too many years the Government has imposed a pay freeze or pay restraint on public sector workers with impunity. For equally as many years the Local Government employers have squeezed even tighter than the Government on the living standards of its workforce with impunity.

It’s inconceivable that past generations of local government workers would have put up with this situation. 2013 must be the year when we turn the tide against low pay in local government. Starting with UK wide solidarity with Scottish local government workers in the event that their current ballot leads to strike action.