Local government dispute declared

UNISON and the other local government unions have lodged a formal dispute with the Local Government Employers covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland over the failure to make a pay offer on 14 January.

The letter to Sarah Messenger, the employers’ secretary on the National Joint Council for Local Government Services, states: “In light of the failure to make us an NJC pay offer for 2014-15 and as a result of your suggestion that this year’s pay offer will in any case be ‘pegged’ to the national minimum wage, I am writing to notify you that the Trade Union Side considers itself to be in formal dispute with you.”