A pay freeze is set to be imposed on 1.4million social workers, librarians and refuse collectors from this April.
Unions had wanted a 2.5 per cent rise but local authority employers informed them yesterday that they would be unable to offer any pay increase this year for council staff.
The proposed freeze, the first this year involving low-paid public sector workers, follows warnings by Labour and the Tories of low or zero rises in the next three years. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, had told public sector chiefs that they faced pay freezes this year, but said that he would delay the pain for lower paid staff until 2011-12, when a cap of a 1 per cent rise will apply across the board for two years.
Local government employers said yesterday that they needed to apply the freeze immediately in an attempt to protect jobs and front-line services.
However, union leaders, who were not consulted on the decision, pointed out that inflation was already nearly 3 per cent and threatened to rise further this year. Unison, GMB and Unite said that workers, many on salaries of less than £13,000, would struggle to afford basic essentials and accused the Tory-led Local Government Association of going further than George Osborne, the shadow chancellor.
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Heather Wakefield, from Unison, said that the decision was a “slap in the face” for council workers who had kept local communities together during the financial crisis, adding that two thirds of local government workers earned less than £18,000 a year.
“Last year George Osborne said the Tories would not freeze pay for those earning in this pay bracket, now the Tory LGA is doing just that. We know that councils can afford an increase. Council reserves have grown, while many have chosen to cut their own income by freezing council tax.”
Employers said that they had acted in response to the extremely tight financial situation, arguing that the unions claim of 2.5 per cent would have cost councils £840million.
Caroline Spelman, Shadow Local Government Minister, said: “Given how worrying the current economic situation is councils are having to make tough decisions to fend off even higher council tax bills.”