HUNDREDS of council workers in Warrington are facing the dole queue, according to the Town Hall union UNISON.
In addition, Government Ministers are after their pensions, planning to make them pay more, work longer and get less when they retire.
Unison joint secretary Jason Horan says: “Local council workers in Warrington care for the elderly and vulnerable, we keep children safe, clean streets and parks, give housing help to those who need it, and give hope to young people with places where they can get advice, help or have fun. We run nurseries, leisure centres and libraries – the list is endless.
“Just as council workers have cared for you, we need our local community to care for us.
“Most of us are low paid women – inflation has been high, but for two years, our pay has been frozen.”
Mr Horan says council workers’ pensions don’t need drastic change.
“Reforms made just four years ago made it affordable and sustainable – income exceeds expenditure by £4-£5 billion a year. Not a penny raised by the changes will go into our pensions, but will go instead towards making up the shortfall in local government funding. This is another way of making public sector workers pay for the recession. Meanwhile, it’s still bonuses for the bankers.”
Mr Horan says the average pension in local government is just over £4,000, falling to £2,800 for women – in exchange for at least 5.5 per cent of their wages every month.
“If we don’t save into our pensions, the alternative is to push us onto state handouts instead.
“As taxpayers, we will all have to foot the bill to support the millions of private sector workers who have been locked out of saving for their retirement by the lack of pensions provision in the private sector. This is the real pensions crisis that we need to take action on – rather than sparking a race to the bottom that will mean poverty in retirement for all.”
Mr Horan says UNISON balloting 1.1 million members for industrial action on the pensions plans. The first day of action is scheduled for November 30.
He adds: “We are looking to our community to support our fight for a decent pension.”
HUNDREDS of council workers in Warrington are facing the dole queue, according to the Town Hall union UNISON.
Hundreds face dole queue – union
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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.
9 Comments
Am I reading this right? Is Jason Horan saying he’s a low paid woman?? Incidentally, what salary band is Mr Horan and other full-time union officials on? And which of his terms and conditions are apparently under attack? I think we should be told…
In the days of final salary pension schemes in the private sector, employees had to contribute about 10% of their salary. With regards to those in the likes of a local authority, it is worth noting that the employer contribution is often in the region of 20%, and given the deficits that the schemes are running, neither the 5.5% employee or the 20% employer contribution is enough. Employee contributions are, in most cases, tax deductable. With regards to the “average” pension with I assume is based on the arithmetic mean rather than the median or modal figure, such figures can be misleading given many of those receiving the pension might have been part time workers and only having worked a few pension qualifying years. An employee for example with 40 years service retiring on £25,000 would receive a pension of £12,813 pa and a lump sum payment of £34,688. Somebody with 40 years service retiring on £15,000 would get a pension of £7,688 pa and a lump sum of £20,813. At the other end of the payscales, somebody on say £80,000 would get £41,000 pa and a lump sum of £111,000.
Hundreds of workers at the Borough Council have already been made jobless, some with as little as half a days notice! Where was the Union when these actions were carried out? The silence was deafening! Again it is the front line workers that are up for scrutiny and Managers, Directors and CE are patted on the back for their inefficiency and given above inflation pay rises. It can only be bad for Warrington and the front line services will suffer. It is time our “elected” Councillors stood up to these Officers and protected jobs and services for the residents of the Town.
Half a day’s notice, I very much doubt it, redundancy is subject to 90 days consultation in organisations such as WBC. Regarding Councillors standing up to protect jobs etc, how exactly are they going to do that, when funding is being reduced, might you be suggesting that they borrow money. As there are elections coming up in May, maybe you should stand and campaign for what you are suggesting, and then provide a detailed plan of how you would do it.
Like you I was interested to know what trade union officials get paid – so I asked Mr Horan as I’m a unison member, I was surprised but pleased to hear that he get’s paid the rate for his own job in the council, an electrician on warrington streets, so my guess is he will be affected by the attack. I wouldn’t do his job for all the money in world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No public sector voices were raised in protest when Gordon Brown plundered (an accurate description of his action) the meagre, contributory, non indexed linked pension packages in the private sector to bolster his tax revenues from which public sector pensions are funded.
Time to stop dithering Labour you are costing jobs and it was your Gov that started to kill our Town.
Easy – they meet you, tell you not to come back on site again and ppay you off! This certainly has happened in more than one case.
does this labour council think we are going to give up are terms and conditions lightly,i dont think so staff at warrington borough council need to realise wants these have gone you will never get them back so we all need to stick together and fight against these combined management and councilors proposals cos they are ridiculous.they could save money by getting rid of nine managers on street scene dont need them all just to manage 50 plus staff on ground level