Strike of council workers in pay dispute called off

A planned national strike by council workers in a row over pay has been called off.

Members of Unison, Unite and the GMB were due to walk out next Tuesday in protest at a pay offer worth 1 per cent for most employees.

The three unions, which represent more than 1.5 million workers in local government and schools said they have decided to suspend the strike action and consult their members on new proposals put forward by the Local Government Association as the “best achievable” by negotiation.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A statement said: “All three unions have made it clear that they want to strengthen the collective bargaining machinery covering local government and schools and move quickly to jointly tackle important issues facing their members with the Local Government Association.

“Members covered by the National Joint Council for Local Government have the lowest pay in the public sector and have suffered significant attacks on their conditions of work in recent years.”

Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB, said: “It has proved extremely difficult to persuade the local government employers to agree new pay proposals for us to consult our members on.

“But now we have an agreed set of new proposals which we will consult on and while doing that GMB is suspending the strike.”

Related topics: