Employers agreed to back the recently published independent Local Government Pay Commission Report at their first official meeting to discuss its findings held last Friday.
The independent Pay Commission was set up in the wake of last year’s council workers strike to look at pay and rewards.
The report’s endorsement for national pay negotiations, while rejecting regional and local pay settlements, was welcomed by the National Employers’ Organisation for local government services.
Recruitment and retention difficulties in local government at the lower end of the pay range are by no means universal and there is currently no compelling case for a general rise in minimum pay, says the report. Equal pay rather than low pay should be the focus in a sector where large numbers of women work, according to the Commission.
The report endorses flexible working at all levels in line with service and employee needs and goes on to say that different forms of working practice should be driven by service demands and the well being of staff. There should be more investment in training and development too.
Peter Monk, Liberal Democrat member of the National Employers’ Organisation, says: “This report throws up challenging issues – on the gender pay gap and training and development for instance – and it is important that we address these directly as employers.”
