On Thursday 24 February, UNISON members from Medway Council gathered to lobby elected councillors over staff pay, ahead of their annual budget setting meeting.
The vote came against a backdrop of poor pay rises over the last decade and workers facing the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation. Inflation is at a 30 year high, taxes are the highest they have been for 50 years, National Insurance is increasing, and energy prices are set to rise by 50%.
Despite this, Medway Council voted on 24 February to offer staff a miserly 2% pay increase for 2022/23. Or to put it another way – a 5.8% cut in their real terms pay. UNISON believes this to be the lowest pay offer for council staff in Kent currently on the table.
2% is an insult to the staff who have worked so hard to deliver services throughout the pandemic. UNISON has made it clear in discussions with the council that a derisory offer such as this wouldn’t go anywhere near to meeting the aspirations of our members. We have pointed out how hard the cost of living crisis is hitting our members and that some council workers have already been forced to make impossible decisions over whether to ‘heat or eat’. The 2% pay offer will do nothing to improve that.
The employer has taken on board, to some extent, representations regarding members on the lowest pay bands and set a new minimum wage in Medway of £10 an hour, which UNISON welcomes.
However, up to this point, most of the union’s arguments appear to have fallen on deaf ears and we have been told that the current offer is final. As a result, this appears to be the best that can be achieved through negotiations alone.
In response, UNISON will now be consulting members over the offer with a recommendation that this is rejected. In the event that staff vote to reject, UNISON members will be asked to vote on whether they wish to take industrial action to improve their pay.
UNISON believes Medway Council staff are WORTH MORE, you NEED MORE and the council should PAY MORE.
With the cost of essentials rising so sharply, Medway Council workers should not accept another year of declining living standards, says UNISON.
Contact the branch to get involved with UNISON’s campaign for fair pay
