Anger at third annual pay freeze for council staff

The announcement by the Local Government Association said it was necessary to protect front-line services and reduce further job losses, however unions have called the move “disgraceful” and have not ruled out strike action.
Sarah Messenger, LGA Head of Workforce, said it was a difficult decision but the right one for taxpayers.
“Today's (Thursday) announcement represents an unprecedented third consecutive year of pay freeze and we recognise the frustration which will be felt by the workforce,” she said.
“While the financial outlook for councils is bleak, we are keen to begin discussions with the unions on a package of reform of pay and conditions that may enable us to avoid a fourth year of pay freeze in 2013."
"A combination of rising costs and shrinking local government funding means councils were left with little choice. Increasing pay would mean more job losses and cuts to the services people need.”
At West Berkshire Council, 1,678 full and part-time staff will be affected, and union UNISON said it believed the council should have increased council tax to protect services and allow for a modest pay increase.
A spokesman for the West Berkshire Council branch, Dave Pearson, said members were being asked to subsidise the services they provided whilst bankers were still receiving huge bonuses for failure.
“A further pay freeze at a time of high inflation will cause our members a great deal of hardship, in particular the low paid," he said.
"Locally we have already lost 10 per cent of the non-school workforce in the last year and yet the public appear to expect the same quantity and quality of service provision and are complaining constantly to our members when they don't receive it, which increases the pressure on them and further damages morale.
“Public sector workers are fed up with being vilified and made the scapegoat for economic problems they had no part in causing and many of our members are beginning to question their commitment to public service when employer fails to look after their interests and they are being forced to provide inadequate services, particularly to vulnerable people.”
In its budget likely to be green lit next Thursday West Berkshire Council has unveiled plans to freeze council tax for a second year running.
The council has chopped £9 million from its budget this year in response to a £24 million cut in funding over four years from central Government.
Of the savings £3 million comes from redundancies, a total of £4 million has been culled from every department from roads to schools and waste as part of a wide-scale restructuring, and £2 million in funding for vulnerable groups.