Unions accept WC cuts
Wiltshire Council wants to axe £289 million from budgets over the next four years and much of this will be at the expense of the staff.
The council have put forward a number of proposals to make the cuts, with the threat that further redundancies would be made if agreement couldn't be reached.
Proposals rejected by the trade unions include reducing overtime rates and removing unsocial hours payments; introducing charges for staff car parking; withdrawing the payment of home working allowances; reducing redundancy pay by 50%; cutting sick pay; and a 1% pay cut across the board.
A set of proposals was accepted by the trade unions as worthy of a ballot to determine whether they can be accepted.
These are:
- Removal of essential and casual car user rates - all staff will move to the Inland Revenue mileage rate currently 45p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter.
- Reduction in period of pay protection - this would reduce from three years to one year for all new cases with effect from 1 September 2011.
- Removal of excess home to work travel for new employees.
- Increment freeze for two years.
WC claims these proposals would deliver £8.81 million savings over the next four years, leaving a potential shortfall of £3.19 million.
All three unions - Unison, Unite and GMB - have announced the result of the ballots with in each case a majority of voters accepting the arrangements.