Published: Wednesday, 12th December, 2007 12:30
Festive pay cuts gloom at SBC
By David Knox
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HUNDREDS of manual workers are facing pay cuts this Christmas as Scottish Borders Council attempts to enforce cost cutting measures.
And dozens of staff members could even be out of a job next year.
Roads workers, gravediggers, binmen and gardeners are in line to have their wages slashed as the local authority attempts to balance its books.
And appeals for volunteers to take early retirement have been made across departments.
The salary changes, which include reduced weekend rates, lower overtime payments and tighter car mileage money, are proposed to help counter increased salaries made to female staff under single status rulings.
They may also see up to 75 jobs axed from several frontline departments.
One threatened worker told the Border Telegraph: “They have singled out the boys who do all the manual jobs to take the hit for this.
“There are a lot of angry people at the council just now as none of the top bosses are affected in any way – just the guys on the low wages.
“It’s fair enough that women should be paid the same as men and nobody argued with that, but the way they have gone about finding the extra money is terrible.”
Letters were sent out to all council employees last Friday detailing their new terms and conditions – despite negotiations still continuing with unions.
And the local authority has put a deadline of January 4 for the new contracts to be signed.
Under single status around 62 per-cent of the council’s 5,000 employees, almost entirely women, will see their pay increase.
But around 12 per-cent will suffer wage cuts to counter the added costs.
Another frontline worker told us: “I will be close to £1,000 a year out of pocket under the new terms – that’s a lot of money to someone with a family.
“There’s talk about voluntary redundancies and early retirements but nobody seems to know what is going on.”
Officials and shop stewards from UNISON, T&G and the GMB unions were locked in talks throughout week with council bosses.
And an emergency meeting was ongoing yesterday with the unions (Tuesday) as we went to press.
Council leader David Parker and chief executive David Hume were also locked in talks with bosses before releasing a statement to the Border Telegraph.
It said: “Our proposals have been developed in consultation with the trades unions. They are based on principles of fairness and equality.
“The council is fully committed to continuing consultation and negotiation with the trade unions with the aim of reaching an agreement which will allow the new pay, grading structure, and terms and conditions to be introduced to all staff on April 1, 2008.
“A proposed new single status pay and grading structure has been developed. This would replace existing arrangements for office, professional, technical and manual staff. The proposal also includes revised and harmonized terms and conditions of service.”
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