PRESS RELEASE - NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
GMB TRADE UNION
PRESS RELEASE
NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
GMB today announced that they will be circulating a consultative ballot paper to their members over the ACOS decision to rubber stamp the reductions to terms and conditions of its employees. As a consequence of a meeting that was held on the 8th March 2011, GMB full-time Officer, Chris Needham made the following comments:
“The proposals are totally draconian and that effectively this will lead to severe hardship for all workers at Nottingham City Council. Not only is there a two year pay freeze imposed through the failure of the local authorities to implement the £250 pay offer from the Central Government, which was announced by David Cameron, but there is also an intention to freeze incremental pay for 2 years from April 2011 onwards. As a result this will further reduce the spending power of all employees within Nottingham City Council.
The other reductions that have been put in place are reducing the redundancy pay from 2.5 times the statutory amount to 1.5 times the statutory amount and as a consequence this leaves employees who currently work totally disadvantaged, as if they do not leave before the 1st April they will have a further reduction in any benefits paid to them.
The 3rd part of this attack on employees is the introduction of a car parking charge for employees who park in company spaces. This is seen as more than a 2% per week reduction and yet again based on the fact that there will also be a hike later in the year of 3% on pensions, the ultimate position will be a reduction to current employees of over 5% of take home pay. Also there is a further element to remove the SLMG competency based pay which is paid to Senior Management within the Authority and as a consequence this in turn will have a further impact.
As a consequence of the above the GMB along with Unite and Unison will be looking to its members for an indication on how they wish to respond to these measures. The measures are to be implemented on the 1st April 2011, and it has to be said that this is a bad day for all trade union members and employees of Nottingham City Council”.
For further information on this please contact Chris Needham, Regional Officer at the GMB Trade Union Regional Office on 0115 9607171.