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Chair of the National Employers, Cllr Sian Timoney, responded to the local government unions’ 2018 pay claim for a 5 per cent pay increase for all staff

“We will be consulting with councils in the coming weeks on pay across the workforce and in particular how we can meet the challenge of the Government’s proposed level of the National Living Wage over the next few years. The unions’ claim will form part of the consultation.

“We recognise that public sector workers have had lower than average pay awards for a few years now, but local government continues to face significant financial challenges so we are surprised that the unions are seeking such an ambitious pay award. Local government has lost more than half a million jobs in recent years and meeting this claim would result in many more such job losses.”

Notes to editors

The unions’ pay claim does not apply to council chief executives, senior officers, teachers or firefighters, who are all covered by separate national pay arrangements.

The National Joint Council negotiates the pay, terms and conditions of staff in local authorities. It agrees an annual uplift to the national pay spine, on which each individual council decides where to place its employees. Each council takes into account a number of factors such as job size and local labour market conditions when deciding an employee’s salary. There are no nationally determined jobs or pay grades in local government, unlike in other parts of the public sector.