Cheshire East Council have launched a three month consultation with staff regarding proposed changes to staff's pay and conditions.
Up to 550 council jobs could be cut in a bid to save over £8.7m from employees pay.
A formal consultation with employees was launched on Thursday, 24th February, to propose reforms to the currently wide variety of terms and conditions in place for staff.
Council employees who came from the four Cheshire East legacy authorities, Congleton, Crewe and Nantwich, Macclesfield and Cheshire County councils, have different holiday entitlements, rates of pay for weekend and overtime working and different entitlements to allowances.
Cheshire East Councillor Peter Mason, Cabinet portfolio holder with responsibility for HR, procurement, assets and shared services, said: "As a Council, we are responding positively to changes in the structure of local government funding. We recognise that delivering high-value, low-cost council services is essential to local accountability.
"This review is about ensuring Cheshire East Council gives good value for money to taxpayers by reducing costs to free up more resources for frontline services and helping to protect jobs.
"One of the reasons for the proposals is to eliminate the inconsistencies and to address the inequalities between terms and conditions. At the same time, we want our terms and conditions to be modern, flexible and fit for purpose. In developing a new pay structure we need to take account of the challenging economic situation facing councils across the country.
"We will continue to discuss with the trade unions how we want to protect jobs and basic pay – while maintaining services to the public. To do this we need to balance our budget and find significant savings, amounting to £31.3m next year, as part of our commitment to be an excellent Council and deliver for Cheshire East residents."
Discussions with trade unions about the review began last July and formal consultation with the unions began in December, on a confidential basis.
According to UNISON, Britain's biggest public sector trade union, proposals include a pay freeze which will save £1.3 million in year one and £2.4 million in year two, and the introduction of a flat rate for all weekend work designed to save £1.69m.
A basic flat rate for overtime, saving £687,280, the removal of all bonus payments, saving £503,006, and the introduction of a time +10% rate for all night and evening working, saving £167,015, are also being proposed according to UNISON. In addition, suggested changes to the basic pay grading structure will save £246,270.
UNISON, who has been in talks with Cheshire East Council regarding a new pay structure, say they had an agreement with the Human Resources team at CEC that, only when the talks had finished, would the Joint Unions then be able to consult their members and inform them of the proposals.
Instead, they say the Council has now bypassed this part of the process by writing to all CEC employees last week, telling them directly what the council intends to implement. UNISON believes that this is not the way to have meaningful consultation with the Joint Trade Unions, it is an open breach of the agreement they had and an attempt to undermine UNISON as a trade union.
Cheshire East have announced that staff will be kept informed of progress in the review via an internal 'Fit for the Future' newsletter and the Council will consider all the feedback received during consultation.
UNISON have stated that "Unions have to ballot all Union members on the proposals and consider Industrial Action if an agreement is not reached."
A single set of harmonised terms and conditions for all employees is expected to take effect September/October 2011. As yet we are unclear whether decisions regarding the possible 550 job losses will be taken by this time.
