Equal pay: 'The council should avoid a total pay freeze'

THE negotiation of the Single Status pay accord, which aims to eradicate pay anomalies in the public sector, is without doubt a major challenge for local authorities.

But it makes the task no easier when they are forced to enter into talks with the unions with the threat of strike action hanging heavily in the air.

It is understandable that unions should seek to protect the rights, pay and conditions of their members – after all, that is why such organisations were set up in the first place. But the power they wield must be used responsibly and talk of a summer of discontent in pursuit of their objectives effectively holds a gun to the head of the council, which is being forced by legislation to undertake pay regrading almost immediately after paying out in excess of £30 million in compensation to workers who had previously been underpaid.

It is brave of Jenny Dawe to state publicly that she expects industrial action over the issue, but her talk of there being "losers" is perhaps not the wisest terminology.

Although the majority of workers will be unaffected by this exercise, certainly there are some who will be "disadvantaged" by seeing their wages effectively frozen while lower-paid colleagues doing the same job catch up. In the current climate it would be wise of the council to avoid imposing a total freeze on any staff and instead opt for a limited rise.

While it is to be expected that the unions will do all in their power to soften the blow for those affected, they should welcome the opportunity to see the pay of other members rise to a more appropriate level for their function.

Obviously trade unions support the notion of equality, but attitudes at present appear all too typical of organisations eager to flex their muscles regardless of the consequences or the legitimacy of the claims.

And as with the recent dispute at Grangemouth, there seems to be a new willingness to bring the nearest available house of cards crashing down on behalf of a relatively small number of members whose conditions are not being drastically affected.

Were it to be the case that some members were actually going to lose money through this exercise there would be plenty of justification for taking industrial action. Cutting pay would be totally unacceptable and it would be wrong to punish some workers for salary mistakes in the past not of their making.

But this regrading exercise is really all about ironing out inconsistencies and the "winners" will be low-paid employees such as cleaners and catering staff who have historically not received overtime and bonus payments enjoyed by those working in male-dominated manual jobs. The unions should embrace this opportunity – not resist it.