23 June 2008

Responding to the announcement that Unison members have voted to reject the final pay deal of 2.45% with £100 extra for the lowest three pay grades, Brian Baldwin, Chair of the Employers' Side of the NJC, said: 

"Unison must give very serious consideration as to whether it wants to take council employees out on strike action when only 13% of their membership voted for it. Any strike action Unison calls could have serious implications for some of the most vulnerable people in society and would not change the fact that our last offer was our final offer.

"The settlement on the table was affordable both to the taxpayer and councils while at the same time made sure that local government continued to be an attractive place to work.

"If the pay settlement set any higher, then councils will be forced into making unpalatable choices between cutting front line services and laying off staff. Neither unions nor employers would want either of these options."

Employer responses to industrial action – June 2008

LGE has prepared FAQs on issues relating to the industrial action planned by UNISON for 16/17 July 

You must be an LGE subscriber or registered local authority user to access this guidance.

If after accessing the advice, you still have an unanswered query, please direct this to our dedicated email query line strikequeries@lge.gov.uk. Please do not direct your queries to individual LGE officers. 

The proposed strike affects only local authorities whose employees have been balloted for industrial action. Therefore, due to the volume of enquiries, LGE will reply to requests for information received from local authority employers only.  Such email requests must originate from a recognised local authority email address, containing the name, job title and contact telephone number of the officer making the request. 

The LGE as an employers organisation will reply only to local government employers on this issue and not to individual employees.