WARRINGTON Borough Council has gone ahead with controversial pay rises of up to 13.3 per cent for senior managers – despite angry protests from Town Hall unions.
Members of UNISON, GMB and Unite demonstrated outside the Town Hall before the monthly meeting of the council, carrying banners urging councillors to vote “No” to the pay rises.
They said the council’s senior management restructure included a new pay and grading structure for senior managers which would mean some received salary increases of between 4.4 per cent and 13.3 per cent.
This compared with a one per cent national pay award for other council works that the government put in place via a cap on pay increases.
In a joint statement, the unions said: “It seems that senior management are exempt from any pay cap and can be accommodated by an external review that puts into place a pay and grading structure that has not been consulted on.”
Union bosses described the increases as “immoral and inappropriate.”
They ridiculed the council’s claim that managers were having to take on additional responsibilities and that the authority would lose good officers if they did not pay more.
But the controlling Labour group on the council voted through the senior management restructure.
The council’s executive member for personnel, Cllr Hitesh Patel said the council had to cut spending and had reduced the number of senior management posts. This meant some senior managers had bigger responsibilities than previously.
Similar action had been taken by numerous other councils and an independent body had assessed how much these managers should be paid.
The bottom line was that the restructure would save the council taxpayer more than £200,000 a year.
WARRINGTON Borough Council has gone ahead with controversial pay rises
of up to 13.3 per cent for senior managers - despite angry protests from
Town Hall unions.
Immoral pay rises go ahead
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
13 Comments
And cue Greyman………………………………….
Bit like the M.P’s getting a substantial pay increase. Like the old saying goes ‘its all right for the barons of this world but being a serfs not so good’
Can’t help feeling the Labour council has shot itself in the foot and the voting public will be reminded of this mistake at the next election.
This saves 200k so if they dont want this then what other ideas have they got to save the money? It is all down to the Government’s cuts that the council has to deal with
And Karlar!!! And Cleopatra !!!
And they could have saved more cash by not giving unjustified pay increases to managers!
No it’s down to weakness and incompetence on the behalf of the Labour council. Yes let’s hope the public do remember at the next LOCAL elections and kick out the O’Neill junta.
Who told (yes I deliberately use the word told,) our elected , so-called, representatives to give these increases – was it the very officers receiving the increases?
CORRUPTION IN ACTION
If you can read then it was an independent body
APPROVED by the sheep we voted on to represent us.
I can read – I also am not naïve enough to believe that officers would have kept out of discussions
Be fair. Why would anyone want to have an opinion about a council that constantly says it has no money so has to cut services offering huge pay rises to senior employees? What could be wrong with that?
spot on Barry,
As long as your a local coucilor or an MP the minimum pay rise is 11%. So no other worker should be refused the same kind of increase as they lead from the front.