Pay demand explained (From Stroud News and Journal)

Pay demand explained

PICKETS outside Ebley Mill on Wednesday were offering visitors to the district council's headquarters an explanation of why they wanted more money.

Members of UNISON, the local government union, have been offered a three percent pay rise and Wednesday's one-day strike was in support of the union's claim for a six percent rise or a flat rate increase of £1,750, whichever is the greater.

UNISON steward Geoff Brocklehurst, a building maintenance officer based at Ebley Mill, said local government workers were now earning less than teachers.

Lesley Hunt, from SDC's housing management department, was concerned that many female council staff, such as nursery nurses and care assistants, were earning less than £5 an hour.

Nationally 20 percent of local government staff currently earn below £5 an hour.

"Local government workers are a dedicated bunch who like providing good quality services to the public and a lot are professionally qualified yet they are losing out to other areas of the public sector and to the private sector," said Ms Hunt.

Mr Brocklehurst said staffing levels at Ebley Mill had gone down while responsibilities for the remaining staff had increased.

This, coupled with poor pay, was, he said, why the council was unable to fill many of the staff vacancies.

However, an SDC spokesman said that of the council's 530 staff (of which 207 are UNISON members) only a couple of casual staff employed at the sports centre were paid under £5 an hour but had an extra eight percent on top in lieu of holiday pay.

She also denied that the council had a problem with unfilled vacancies. "There are no unfilled vacancies at the moment although we do have some temporary staff in clerical positions but that is a management decision and not because we have been unable to fill the vacancy.

"I don't think we have ever advertised a vacancy and not been able to fill it," she added. The average senior clerical salary at Ebley Mill is just above £13,000.