{"id":19813,"date":"2020-01-21T16:38:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T16:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19813"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:54:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:54:34","slug":"were-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19813","title":{"rendered":"‘We are worth it’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unite members protested outside a meeting of the Local Government Association (LGA) today (January 21) in London to demand a pay rise for local authority staff, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve suffered significant cuts to pay and conditions under a decade of austerity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite has put forward a series of demands to put right the pay injustice local government workers have faced over the last ten years, including the introduction of a real Living Wage of \u00c2\u014110 an hour as well as a 10 per cent across the board pay rise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite branch secretary for Greenwich council Danny Hoggan (pictured below) told UniteLive how the members he represents in the care sector and waste services in particular are among those hit hardest.<\/p>\n

\"LGA_danny\"<\/p>\n

Danny told of how members overall have lost more than 20 per cent of their salary in real terms over the last decade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe LGA must begin to recognise low pay and their failure to give people a real wage increase for ten whole years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the consequences of that,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an abstract concept. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a dire crisis in recruitment and retention, and low pay only exacerbates that. People simply cannot live on less than \u00c2\u014110 an hour in London.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite convenor for Leicester City council Ty Denton (pictured) said the situation is just as dire in the East Midlands.<\/p>\n

\"lga_ty\"<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis has not just affected people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pay packets \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affected the whole morale of the entire workforce,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bEveryone is being asked to do in essence more work for less pay.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Indeed, Unite has also included in its pay claim measures to tackle a long hours\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 culture which has decimated\u00c2\u00a0morale and productivity levels. Among these demands is a two-hour reduction in the working week with no loss of pay and an additional day of annual leave.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMembers are under significant stress and strain,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Ty added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c generally local authority workers are caring in nature. They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in it for the salaries; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in it because they care about their communities. All they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re asking for is a fair wage rise for a fair day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Danny, who works with adults with disabilities and also serves as Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s London and Eastern region chair on local authorities, explained how low pay impacts residents as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLow-paid workers in home care, for example, whose service has been privatised and externalised, have a turnover of 60 to 70 per cent each and every year. That means people providing the care change on an almost weekly or monthly basis for those receiving the care. That can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be good for anyone, especially for the most vulnerable people in our society.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer Ian Woodland called on the LGA to see sense and come to the table when pay talks begin next month.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members over the last ten years have suffered in essence what is a 22 per cent pay cut due to no pay or cost-of-living increases across the whole sector,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen the LGA says it cannot afford pay increases, I saw we must turn the question around. Can our members afford to continue to take pay cuts? With the cost of living as it is, the answer is definitely not. They still have rent to pay and food to put on the table, along with everything else.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur pay claim is a sensible one,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe LGA need to invest in our local communities and make sure that we retain the highly skilled staff that we have.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail agreed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLocal government have been subjected to the deepest and most severe cuts during the Tory period of austerity,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe workforce are dedicated to caring for all areas of our community 24\/7 for which they get little reward. Local authority workers have seen years of savage cuts to their pay and conditions and have fallen behind other UK workers in terms of take home pay.\u00c2\u00a0 Unite believe our local authority members deserve a significant, well-earned pay increase. They are worth it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay tuned on UniteLive for more updates when local authority pay talks begin next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite members protested outside a meeting of the Local Government Association (LGA) today (January 21) in London to demand a pay rise for local authority staff, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve suffered significant cuts to pay and conditions under a decade of austerity.   Unite has put forward a series of demands to put right the pay injustice local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[999,104,84],"wps_subtitle":"Local authority workers demand a fair pay rise after a decade of austerity","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19813"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24766,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19813\/revisions\/24766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}