Thousands of Wolverhampton council workers win pay rises
Pay rises for thousands of council staff in Wolverhampton have been approved despite massive cuts.
The move will put another £7 million onto Wolverhampton City Council’s wage bill for the next year.
It comes as the council is trying to save £60m over five years due to funding cuts and is preparing to axe potentially hundreds of jobs.
The council is introducing the national living wage – a £7.45 an hour minimum rate that is £1.26 an hour higher than the national minimum wage.
It is part of the arrangements to settle an issue called Single Status, a national scheme set up 16 years ago to iron out decades of pay inequality between men and women in councils.
Wolverhampton is the last authority in the Black Country to complete the arrangements.
Under the changes, which were first announced last year, 5,423 staff will get a pay rise from next month and 1,242 staff will see their pay cut from next April.
Introducing the living wage was part of the arrangements to get trade unions to back down from the threat of strike action over plans to scrap time-and-a-half and double-time pay for working unsociable hours, and bonuses for certain staff to use their cars, prompting the threat of strikes from trade unions.
Last night councillors also approved changes to the pay of senior officers which will see the council’s chief executive and three directors lose their £1,989 a year car allowance.
Up to 69 senior managers will lose out on their annual pay rises from 2014 if they fail to meet certain targets. Councillor Paul Sweet, who is in charge of human resources for the ruling
Labour party, said: “Single Status has been on and off the agenda for many years.
“Many councils pushed ahead to implement their arrangements early and can to rue that decision due to inequalities still in their pay model.
“I believe these proposals are good for employees and the city as a whole as many of the staff who work in Wolverhampton live and spend here as well.”
He added that the council had already saved £1 million by axing 11 of the highest earning posts in 2011. But Conservative leader Councillor Neville Patten said he wanted the top executives to take a bigger pay cut than their car allowance.
Comments for: "Thousands of Wolverhampton council workers win pay rises"
arrrrgh!
What a joke, do the public realise this will be paid for by scrapping Council Tax relief for the most vulnerable in society ie the disabled ( the cost of this is exactly matched by the extra disabled will have tio find)? Shame on the Labour run Wolverhampton City Council, cut the thousands of non-jobs and thousands of shirkers that infest the Kremlin;
Mark
Don't they realise it's pay rises this year and MASSIVE job cuts next year?
What this article does not tell us is that yes us council workers are getting a pay rise......however lots of us are having our hours cut!! I think they call it giving with one hand and taking it with the other?!!
I for one will not be better off for the pay rise, as what I would have gained I am going to be losing as my hours are being cut, in fact I think I am going to be worse off than I am now.
SARA
ROTAS OF TWO PATIENTS TO TEN STAFF !!!!
John
A Report that went to Cabinet on Wednesday 6 March stated that a restructure of Senior Management will cost an extra £220k at a time when Council workers have had no rise for at least 2 years and some of them are losing their jobs
Rises for staff earning between £60k and £130k is obscene and displays arrogance and contempt for the vast majority of workers and Council tax payers
Why have elected members approved this pay restructure , why has this not been highlighted by council Unions
It appears they are all at the same trough
Their silence is deafening
The report can be viewed on the Council website