Wages frozen for all Walsall Council staff

Employees at the local authority had been in line to receive the one per cent pay rise agreed at national level from April 1.

But due to the council's current financial circumstances, a one per cent pay reduction has been agreed.

This means that all staff pay will effectively be frozen as the one per cent reduction cancels out the one per cent pay rise.

Councillor Sean Coughlan, the leader of Walsall Council, said the pay freeze had been a difficult decision, but one that was right for residents and the council's workforce.

"Let's be clear – no one at Walsall Council will receive a pay rise this year," he said.

"In March 2016, the council released a number of proposals after having undertaken a review of its employees' terms and conditions.

"Having listened to the feedback from this consultation, the proposals were amended and staff have voluntarily agreed to these changes.

"To clarify, the pay of the council's chief officers is being treated as exactly the same as the rest of the council's employees in that, although all staff will receive the one per cent national pay increase from April 1, 2017, everyone will also receive a one per cent pay reduction linked to the implementation of that review.

"This will have the same impact on both chief officers' pay and everyone else in that it will effectively mean a pay freeze for all employees from April 1, 2017.

"It's been a difficult decision to make, but it is the right one for council taxpayers and our workforce as a whole," said Councillor Coughlan.

The pay freeze was provisionally agreed by the council's personnel committee on December 7 before being rubber stamped by full council at a meeting earlier this month.

At the meeting, both Councillor Coughlan and Councillor Mike Bird, the former leader of the council and current leader of the Conservative group in Walsall, agreed that the salaries being paid to its chief executive and other chief officers at the council were at the going rate.

The freeze has been agreed at a time when Walsall needs to save £86m by 2020.

It has put forward a number of cost-cutting options, including closing 15 of the borough's 16 libraries, which will be finalised at cabinet and then a full council meeting in February.