Unison members accept and Unite members reject local government pay offer

All three trade unions representing local authority workers in the ongoing pay dispute recently ballotted their members, recommending rejection of the latest offer.

Unison has now reported that the result of its ballot of 100,000 members is a narrow acceptance of the offer – 3% for 2008 and 2.5% for 2009. Dougie Black , Unison’s regional organiser, says that the close result sends a clear message to local authorities that staff are not happy with the offer. He says: ‘This offer is not good but circumstances have led to our members drawing this dispute to a close. They have made a pragmatic decision based on the perilous state of local government finance, the unsettled wider economy and the fact that Christmas is almost upon us’.

Unite and GMB together represent a further 100,000 workers. Jimmy Farrelly, for Unite, says that the response for their ballot was over 50% and that about 60% of that response had rejected the offer. He says that the union will now be meeting its local authority shop stewards to decide on further action.

The result of the GMB ballot is expected soon.