Poor Pay, Long Hours, No Promotion - Life on the Council Front Line

UNISON, the union representing 800,000 local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has today released a survey which blows a hole in the myth of the well paid 9 to 5 council worker, who can sit back and wait for promotion.

The survey released to coincide with the start of pay talks, shows that although 68% of those surveyed had worked for local government for more than 10 years, only a half have ever been promoted and one third had been promoted just once. More than a fifth regularly work weekends and bank holidays, with split, mixed shifts and multiple jobs a significant feature.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government said:

“This survey shines a light into some of the darker aspects of life in local government. We know there are around 300,000 women who earn less than £5.53 an hour and many more are stuck in dead end jobs, with little or no chance of training or promotion. This is a terrible waste of peoples’ skills and talents and goes against the reality that you need a well trained, well motivated workforce to deliver quality services.

“The Local Government Pay Commission report said that council training budgets are relatively low and have been a target for cuts. UNISON wants to see greater investment in training and development, which we believe will go a long way towards tackling some of the major recruitment difficulties also highlighted in the survey.”

Comments from the survey which illustrate scandalous promotion and training difficulties: “There are no prospects of promotion in my current position” - Community Development Worker “Unwilling to spend money on training for perceived lower level jobs” - Clerical/Administrator “Qualification - gaining this has been very hard. I have to part fund this myself. It’s very difficult as I work part-time and rely on income support” - Social Worker “No training offered” - Catering Worker “Not enough funding for training” - Learning Support/Classroom Assistant “Working nights - not taken seriously” - Residential Care Assistant “Not enough secondments to assist professional assistant to become social worker/probation officers etc.” - Professional Assistant “More money please and more chances of promotion. Want to make the move from blue collar to white” - School Cook/Supervisor.

And on working hours

“Just this weekend a client called me to do a small amount of shopping for her, which I did, even though I was on holiday this weekend” - Home Care Worker “I take work home at nights and weekends” - School Secretary “I frequently work at weekends or in the evenings to meet deadlines. This is not paid. Time in lieu is hard to take because the work still needs to be done!” - Lawyer “Start before time, stay over if necessary. All voluntary work. Work part of breaks if child is sick, take repairs/washing home sometimes” Learning Support Assistant.

Heather Wakefield added: “It’s clear that many are struggling to make ends meet, unable to take holidays, often in debt particularly to pay for children's needs, pay the rent or meet the mortgage. This can’t go on. We will be telling the employers loud and clear, at the pay talks tomorrow, that it’s time to deliver for local government workers.”

Key Points * 75% of local government workers are female * 95% of part-time workers are female * Wide variety of working hours and patterns - over 20% work evenings/weekend * 60% deal with verbally aggressive people and 33% with physically aggressive. * Women disproportionally on bottom pay scales * Less than 30% feel pay meets their household needs. * Almost 40% of workers had no success in getting promotion * 66% of respondents have considered leaving in last 12 months * 75% of the workforce are over 40 * 50% report recruitment and or retention problems ends

* Survey - Perceptions at Work: Women and Men in Local Government by Dr. Carole Thornley - based on a questionnaire survey with over 3,000 replies.