Council to face costly legal challenge to wage-cut move

Senior officers drew up the proposals as part of the authority’s bid to save £70m by 2014, of which £30m must be found in the financial year starting this April.

Members of Doncaster Council’s employee relations committee voted for the reduction despite representations from the authority’s three main unions, Unison, Unite and the GMB.

Labour members of the committee who supported the pay cut clashed with union officials at yesterday afternoon’s meeting, with the councillors claiming that their “hands were tied”.

In response, unions said they planned to ballot members recommending rejection of the proposals, and threatened to take legal action that could “wipe out” any savings made.

Doncaster Council has already made 1,000 staff redundant under plans to make the savings demanded by the coalition Government and said the pay cut would help “protect jobs”.

Finance director Simon Wiles and newly-appointed chief executive Jo Miller told yesterday’s meeting that every £1.2m less on wages would save 40 full-time jobs.

Council chiefs want to cut the wages of all staff earning more than £15,000 a year, affecting 7,000 staff but keeping between 200 and 250 jobs.

As well as reduced salaries, council employees also face changes to holiday entitlement and overtime and unsocial hours payments, which union leaders said was “asking too much”.

Jim Board, of Unison, said changing terms and conditions could leave the council open to thousands of legal claims, which if succcessful, would cost the authority more than it planned to save.

Mr Board, who represents about 3,000 affected staff, said: “Next month and in March we will initiate a large-scale campaign of tribunal and civil cases and prosecute them to the fullest extent.

“We are confident that if we go to a ballot that the proposals will be rejected by our members.”

Mr Board’s comments were supported by Paul Smillie of Unite, who represents about 1,000 workers at the authority and Bob McNeill, of the GMB, which also has 1,000 council members.

Committee chairman Councillor Craig Sahman said that he and his colleagues “did not like” the decision they had made, and blamed the Government.

Doncaster Council currently employs about 10,000 as one of the town’s largest employers.

• The Government’s hopes of resolving the bitter national dispute over public sector pensions also received a fresh blow yesterday when leaders of tens of thousands of council workers rejected a final offer. Unite said “genuine discussions” should be held without “arbitrary” deadlines.