Transcript Stewards PowerPoint and speakers notes on pay offer

The 2014-15 pay claim
•A minimum increase of £1 an hour on scale point 5 to achieve
the Living Wage and
•the same flat rate increase on all scale points.
•The Living Wage has risen to £7.65 an hour, so we would need
an increase of £1.20 on scale point 5 to reach it.
•.
The Employers’ Final Offer
•1% for pay points 11-49 (90% of workforce.)
•Pay points 5-10 offered over 1% to avoid local government
falling below National Minimum Wage:
New Hourly Rate
£580 on pay point 5
£6.75
£550 on pay point 6
£6.82
£400 on pay point 7
£6.90
£275 on pay point 8
£7.05
£200 on pay point 9
£7.22
£175 on pay point 10
£7.35
The Employers Final Offer
minimum NJC pay still the lowest
Minimum
hourly rate
£
Local Government ( with £580 offer on pay point 5)
6.75
NHS Agenda for Change
7.31
Higher Education
7.06
Further Education
7.43
Probation
7.57
Police staff (E & W)
7.74
Civil Service
HM Revenue & Customs
7.65
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
9.41
Department for Education
9.38
Department for Work and Pensions
Dept Enviro, Food & Rural Affairs
7.62
8.05
Cabinet Office
8.95
Private Sector
Tesco
6.91
BT
HSBC
6.80
7.43
•.
What does the offer mean?
• The offer falls woefully short of our claim - and what members
deserve.
•It does nothing to help restore 20% real loss in NJC pay since
2010 and its impact on your pension.
•It means a further 1.7% pay cut for the vast majority of
members.
•It leaves over a third of a million below the Living Wage and the
lowest paid 50,000 just 30p above the National Minimum Wage.
Your Pay – Your Say
•UNISON strongly recommends that you reject the offer.
•If you do reject it, you must be prepared to take strike action to
try and win an improved offer.
•UNISON believes that we should move to an official industrial
action ballot in support of our claim.
• Tell us what you think - take part in your branch ballot.
Why our claim is a fair claim
•The real value of your pay has fallen by 18% since 2010
•Over a third of a million local government workers earn less than the
Living Wage – that’s 25% of the workforce.
•Nearly 1 million earn less than £21,000 – the Coalition’s own low pay
threshold.
•Everyone on NJC pay is low paid for the job they do.
•Local government pay and conditions the worst in the public sector.
More for less
•Cost of living rises, a three-year pay freeze and 1% last year means
you are doing more for less.
•450,000 jobs lost in local government since 2010 means heavier
workloads.
•Vacant and frozen posts not being filled either.
•Stress levels are rising and morale is falling.
•Fuel, travel, food prices and childcare costs all rising.
378,000 earn less than the living wage
•The Living Wage: the bare minimum for acceptable standard of living.
•£7.65 outside London and £8.80 in London.
•28% of councils have already brought in a living wage, 45% are
considering it and 7% have it under review or already pay more.
•Political leaders from all parties support the living wage.
•Employers forced to increase bottom pay points in pay offer more than
1% to avoid falling below National Minimum Wage – the lowest legal rate
of pay.
But its not just the lowest paid struggling...
… everyone is worse off now than in 2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
-£1,000
-£2,500
-£4,000
-£5,500
SCP 5
SCP 10
SCP 19
SCP 38
Poor relations of the public sector
•Local Government has the worst pay and conditions in the whole of
the public sector for comparable jobs.
•From the bottom of the pay spine through to the top.
•Cleaners and catering assistants earn about £800 a year (6%) more in
the NHS.
•And about £950 a year (7%) more in the police service.
Comparing NJC and NHS pay
NHS
NJC
NJC
NHS
Job title
Job title
Average
salary
Average
salary
Domestic
Cleaner
£14,003
support worker
Clinical support Community £17,980
worker (higher
care
level)
assistant
Social worker
Social
£33,051
worker
Senior social
Senior
£37,287
worker
social
worker
Nursery
Nursery
£17,983
nurse
worker
Difference
% NHS pay
between NJC
higher
and NHS
than NJC
Pay
£14,813
£810
5.8%
£19,011
£1,031
5.7%
£34,070
£1,019
3.1%
£40,017
£2,730
7.3%
£21,722
£3,739
20.8%
Local Cuts add insult to injury!
Shabby treatment by employers on pay and conditions:
•Over 60% of councils have cut car allowances.
•Many have cut unsocial hours and overtime.
•Sick pay, basic pay and redundancy pay have been cut.
•Others have imposed unpaid holidays and cut annual leave.
•The Employers are coming hard for annual leave and sick pay.
The cuts don’t work!
•The cuts are not necessary. They are making the deficit rise!
•The crisis was caused by the unsafe and greedy practice of the banks
and the finance sector – not public spending.
•Cutting pay and jobs is not the answer. We need to get the economy
working again.
•Research shows that for every £1 a local government worker earns – 50
pence gets spent in their local economy.
•Higher wages means more local spending - boosting local businesses,
increasing tax and NI returns and creating jobs.
•A pay rise for 1.5 million local government workers will make a big
difference.
The employers will say...
...they can’t afford it. But...
• Since 2010 councils saved a quarter of their staffing costs.
•Their reserves rose by £2.6 billion to £19 billion!
•The extra £2.6 billion in 2012 alone would pay for a 10% pay increase.
•They chose to boost reserves further instead of rewarding their
overworked staff – who are getting poorer.
But there is an alternative
An increase in your pay of at least £1 an hour will:
•Generate significant savings for the Treasury in benefits and tax
credits.
•Plus income from increased tax and national insurance.
• 55% of cost of meeting claim ‘self funded’ for government - New
Policy Institute research.
•Our claim could be funded by recycling these savings to local
authorities – ‘joined up’ government.
New Policy Institute Research
Net public sector cost of £1 pay rise
at each spinal column point
If you accept this pay offer..........
• For 90% of you accepting the offer means your pay will be worth
20% less than in 2010.
• If inflation and pay rises continue as now your pay will be 26% less
by 2017.
•Another pay cut won’t save jobs.
•Another pay cut won’t save services.
•These pay cuts are long term.
Vote to reject the pay offer!
•ALL this will continue unless you take action now
•There ARE political choices
•DON’T be taken for granted
• YOU are worth much more than this bargain basement pay offer
•AND so are those who rely on you
What happens next?
•All branches balloting members on offer using standard ballot form.
•Only strike action can achieve an improved offer.
•UNISON NJC Committee meeting on 24 April to consider responses.
•GMB and UNITE consulting their members along same lines.
• If support UNISON will move to official industrial action ballot in May.
• Important all members have their say so decision reflects your view.
What can I do to help the campaign?
• Talk to work mates about what’s going on – tell them UNISON is
fighting to win them a pay rise and defend their jobs – they must vote!
•If they’re not in UNISON sign them up – we’re stronger together.
•Become an NJC pay ‘champion’ and help the campaign.
•Follow us on Twitter: @LocalGovPay
•Join our facebook campaign:
facebook.com/UnisoninLocalGovernment