Local Government And School Support Workers Pay Strike On Tuesday 14th October Suspended

The new proposals cover the period from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016 and the unions will now move forward together to consult their members.

The three unions which represent more than 1.5 million workers in local government and schools – UNISON, GMB and UNITE – have today decided to suspend strike action planned for 14 October and consult their members on new proposals put forward by the Local Government Association as the best achievable by negotiation.

The proposals cover the period from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016.

In doing so, all three unions have made it clear that they want to strengthen the collective bargaining machinery covering local government and schools and move quickly to jointly tackle important issues facing their members with the Local Government Association.

Members covered by the National Joint Council for Local Government have the lowest pay in the public sector and have suffered significant attacks on their conditions of work in recent years.

The unions will now move forward together to consult their members.

Brian Strutton, GMB National Secretary for Public Services, said

“It has proved extremely difficult to persuade the local government employers to agree new pay proposals for us to consult our members on.  But now we have an agreed set of new proposals which we will consult on and while doing that GMB is suspending the strike planned for 14 October.  We will issue more details about the consultation shortly.”

Flintshire County Council said they had been advised that UNISON, GMB and UNITE have decided to suspend strike action planned for 14 October and consult their members on new proposals put forward by the Local Government Association. Council services will now operate as normal on that day.