Bank holiday Tuesday bonus scrapped

Bank Holiday Tuesdays will be scrapped at a Black Country council from as early as this summer, it emerged today.

Walsall Council is the only authority in the region where workers still enjoy an extra day off at bank holidays.

But 10,000 staff will soon lose their long breaks after Walsall Council leader Mike Bird insisted it was "non-negotiable".

Union bosses have hit out at the move and vowed to fight it.

Councillor Bird said: "This could come into force from August time.

"We think it is archaic and we are the only authority to my knowledge which has this extra day.

"It is something which has been perpetuated over the years.

"If it isn't a bank holiday or public holiday then people should be at work."

The move in Walsall is part of an equal pay review being carried out at the authority which will see thousands of workers offered a one-off payment to level out wage inequalities.

Tony Jones, Unison regional officer, said: "Any attempt to cut holiday entitlement of Unison members will be fought using every available means to do so."

The current rules mean workers get an extra bank holiday day three times a year - Easter, Whitsun and August.

Abolishing it will bring the council in line with nearby Wolverhampton and Dudley councils which scrapped the "bonus" bank holiday in 2006, bowing to pressure from taxpayers. And Sandwell which scrapped the bonus bank holiday day in 2003.

Until then, thousands of workers in the West Midlands and Staffordshire had been able to add an extra day to their bank holiday weekends.

It meant council staff were back at work on the same day as others in the public sector and private business employees.

The move to scrap the extra bank holiday in Walsall comes after strict new rules came into force at the local authority last year to cut down on absence rates. Staff who are on long-term sickness absence could now ultimately face dismissal if there is no foreseeable return to work in sight.

A stricter monitoring scheme is also in place to calculate how many days workers are taking off.

All local authority staff were issued with copies of the new guidelines.

Walsall Council's sickness absence rate stood at 12.07 days per person in 2009 to 2010.

People who are continuously absent for 16 weeks or more will be called to a sickness hearing where the possibility of returning to work will be discussed.

If no return is in sight they could ultimately be dismissed.