Unison claims innacurate over Chief Officers pay

County Council Leader, Rex Toft has today made the following response to suggestions by Unison that he "launch an immediate and thorough investigation" into why the latest nationally negotiated pay settlement for Chief Officers was not reported to the Council's Cabinet. 

"I am satisfied that there is no need for an investigation. Nationally negotiated pay rises occur on an annual basis across all grades of local government employees, they are negotiated on behalf of and apply to all Council's and are not automatically reported to Cabinet or Council. 

The Council's Cabinet considered the new pay arrangements for Senior Managers on the 17th December last year. The report to the Cabinet clearly stated that the new arrangements would include salary levels and conditions of service negotiated by the Joint National Council. Whilst we were conscious that those negotiations were ongoing we did not know at that date the outcome. 

This Council received notice from the JNC about the national increases on the 19th December. The JNC notice, whilst being dated the 10th, was sent direct to the Performance Unit of the Council and was received on the 19th. This notice covered the award for Chief Officers only, as the national award for Chief Executives was negotiated separately. In fact the JNC agreement regarding Chief Executive's salaries has only recently been finalised, with the official notice arriving at the Council on the 6th March. 

There would have been no point at all in bringing senior manager's pay up to national levels, and then allowing them to fall behind immediately by not implementing national pay adjustments. In effect it seems Unison are suggesting this Council should not implement national pay adjustments which seems an unusual stance for a Trade Union to take who generally support national pay negotiations."