Council warned 'hands off pay'

A TRADE union chief in Carmarthenshire has vowed to "fight tooth and nail" to prevent any freeze in council workers' pay.

The move comes in the wake of an announcement that county council chief executive Mark James would not receive a pay rise over the next two years in his £150,000-plus wages, and other senior bosses would also have their salaries frozen.

Plaid group leader Peter Hughes-Griffiths has said he wants to extend the cost-cutting measure to all the authority's workers.

"I welcome the decision, but the freeze needs to be trickled down to all council workers,'' he said.

"It is a positive step but needs to be across the board.''

However, Jeff Baker, of Unison, has issued a hands off warning to County Hall chiefs.

The union's regional organiser for Carmarthenshire said: "Effectively a pay freeze is a cut in pay to our members. We will fight tooth and nail to ensure this doesn't become council policy."

Referring to Councillor Griffiths's comments, Mr Baker said: "He is responding to the chief officers agreeing to a pay freeze, and goes on to say he expects all workers to follow suit.

"Our members wouldn't find it acceptable to pay for the economic crisis, which is not of their own making. It is a private sector crisis and already there's been substantial public money used to bolster the banks while their chief executives still get their large bonuses.

"Mr Griffiths must realise that many of our members are already on low pay and have fought hard during our national pay negotiations to try to maintain a decent standard of living. We are not prepared to forego what had taken years of struggle.''

Mr Baker added he had requested a meeting with the council to discuss the matter.

"We have written to the chief executive requesting a formal meeting on how we can deal with the economic situation and safeguard our jobs,'' he said.

"We are willing to negotiate positively.''

The union leader also criticised the politicians for fudging the issue of future public expenditure.

"It's early days, but what we are interested in is all the political parties have spoken about having to make savings, but all of them have said they will defend frontline services,'' he said.

"They are all too frightened to say it will affect frontline services.''