Unions still fighting £2m attack on workers' contract terms
TALKS are continuing over plans to save £2 million by cutting council workers' terms and conditions.
Union leaders have warned that Stoke-on-Trent City Council's lowest-paid workers face losing up to £6,500-a-year through the proposed cuts to their contractual rights.
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CUTS: John van de Laarschot.
They include cutting allowances paid to staff for working nights and weekends, asking employees to take up to five days' unpaid holiday and charging workers to park on council land.
Council chief executive John van de Laarschot had hoped to implement the terms and conditions cuts in 2011/12.
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But he has achieved just £200,000 and the dispute is still dragging on.
Stoke-on-Trent Unison's executive committee chairman Jamie Ashton said: "There needs to be fairness and equity in any changes to terms and conditions.
"It is acknowledged that the finances are difficult and cuts have to be made as pressures come from the Government.
"But we are not prepared to accept proposals which see the vast majority of the terms and conditions savings impact on the lowest-paid workers.
"The pain has to be fairly borne by everyone, preferably more at the top."
Councillors have approved £21 million budget cuts for 2013/14.
But finance officers say it is unlikely savings of £1.8 million on terms and conditions will be achieved by April.
2 Comments
by stokepotter
Tuesday, March 19 2013, 5:51PM
“It's not a bad amount of allowances is it -up to £6.5K on top of your salary for the lowest paid workers. The Public Sector just do not appeciate what goodies they have been enjoying for many years at the ratepayers expense. It is time that all this lot was tightened up as it has long been overdue. What have the higher ups in the Council been getting - these need to be sorted out too.
Joining the real world just has to come to these people at some point in time.”
by stokepotter
Tuesday, March 19 2013, 5:43PM
“Quote... "Council chief executive John van de Laarschot had hoped to implement the terms and conditions cuts in 2011/12. But he has achieved just £200,000 and the dispute is still dragging on".
Forgetting the Sentinels' bad grammar (that you should never start a sentence with the word 'but') he has not achieved much of a saving here to date towards his £5K salary increase. What can you expect though,he does after all work in the Public Sector where even a modest increase in savings is a major achievement.”