Proposals by the Isle of Wight council of changes to employment Terms and Conditions could lead to some of the lowest-paid council workers seeing a 25-30% reduction in their earnings, say the Island branch of Unison.
The council say the review will achieve savings of £500,000, but it was questioned whether this review is needed at a Unison Special General Meeting, held on Monday.
Branch officers report that they’ve raised the issue with senior managers at the council many times, arguing whether the review was necessary given that the originally-projected budget deficit of over £6m for 2010/11 actually swung around to an underspend of £800,000.
Further cut in living standards
The union say that it’s not right that many workers, who are already low paid, should be forced to see a further cut in their living standards.
The proposals would mean that staff would be expected to work outside ‘normal working hours’ on flat-rate pay. Staff such as floating bridge operatives, care assistants, car park inspectors and home carers rely on weekend and bank holiday enhancements to achieve any kind of living wage.
In some cases this will see a reduction of 25-30% in earnings and could lead to staff shortages if people refuse to work weekends or unsocial hours.
Changes to initial proposals welcomed
Although the union welcomes the fact that the council has “moved away from a general pay cut across the board; a cut in hours for all staff; a massive erosion of the payment scheme and a reduction in maternity and paternity arrangements”, they are determined not to be complacent, saying they “cannot be certain that such measures could not be revisited in the future”.
Reduce salaries of the highly paid
The union says it understands that the council needs to find savings, but have suggested that rather than hitting the low paid, that all employees earning in excess of £100,000 see a reduction in their pay, as well as (at a lower level), those earning between £70,000 and £100,000.
(VentnorBlog recently discovered that the number of people paid over £50,000 at the council actually increased.)
Industrial action is not being ruled out.
Balloted on pension changes
Unison members are also being balloted on national strike action to initially start on 30 November to protect planned changes by the Government to pensions.
