Local government lawyer Mark Greenburgh has thrown down the gauntlet to councils threatening to back out of this year’s pay deal, by claiming they probably can.
Writing in The MJ this week, Mr Greenburgh says: ‘The real choice as to whether to implement the NJC pay award may well lie in the hands of each individual council.’
The lawyer, from Wragge and Co, told The MJ: ‘Each local authority is a separate employer and will have their own wording for their terms and conditions of employment.’ As a result, he says, many councils will have enough ‘wriggle room’ to choose whether to implement this year’s pay deal or back out of the nationally-negotiated rise.
Several councils, particularly Conservative-controlled authorities, have claimed they do not support the 1% deal, and instead they wanted a pay freeze for all staff. Some councils have been calling for regional pay bargaining to be introduced.
But it is unclear whether the councils involved are serious, or are trying to score political points in the run up to the General Election.
However, one of the most vocal authorities, Birmingham City Council, has agreed to pay 1%.
The council, which is facing a £20m financial black hole, claims it is bound by its terms and conditions of employment.
In his article, Mr Greenburgh adds: ‘If Conservative councils are serious in their aim to limit the pay award for this year, rather than make bellicose barks at the collective bargaining structure, they would do well to look to the detail of the employment contracts for their own authority and take advice from their lawyers as to whether they are actually obliged to implement the pay award or not.’
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