A redesign of local government’s pay spine is ‘inevitable,’ employers have admitted privately.
Regional employers’ groups, which have been meeting this month to consider the unions’ RPI+2% pay claim for 2023, have been told that reshaping the spine is now a matter of ‘when not if’.
However, it is understood that employers believe a two-year offer would need to be made to ensure there was enough capacity to reform the pay spine, which was last reviewed in 2018 but has since been undermined by inflation and the National Living Wage.
Employers had been preparing to agree to a pay spine review as part of a two-year offer last year, but ditched their plans amid the uncertainty caused by prime-ministerial changes.
The 2023 pay claim from the three main local government unions called for a review of the National Joint Council (NJC) pay spine, including looking at the top end.
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