GMB warns of town hall 'bombshell'

The GMB has condemned plans by local authority employers to change the terms and conditions of more than a million workers
11 June 2012

Local authority employers are planning to tear up a national agreement covering the terms and conditions of 1.6 million workers and replace it with a "dumbed-down" version, a union leader has revealed.

Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB union, said the "bombshell" would lead to a fresh battle in the sector following months of conflict over the Government's controversial public sector pension reforms.

Mr Strutton told the GMB's annual conference in Brighton that local authority employers wanted "much reduced" new agreements on the terms and conditions of workers ranging from dinner ladies and cleaners to architects and social workers.

"The next big battle is already appearing in front of us because of this plan to tear up the Green Book covering terms and conditions in favour of a dumbed-down version," he said.

The terms and conditions, covering workers in England and Wales, have been in place for decades, but Conservative and Labour-controlled councils now wanted to change them, said Mr Strutton.

He added that the GMB is to recommend acceptance of a proposed deal to end the pensions dispute involving local government workers, saying that 90% of employees will not pay any increase in contributions, although the future pension age will be linked to increases in the state retirement age.

The local government pension scheme was in a "healthy" state and unions did not want politicians to get involved in changes again, said Mr Strutton.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: "We are disappointed that information that was shared with the GMB in confidence has been made public in this way, especially as it comes at a time when we are trying to build a new and more cohesive relationship with the unions.

"We hope that the GMB will also make public a willingness to get around the table and discuss constructively a package of reform of pay and conditions which delivers for workers, employers and council taxpayers."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in