- Conference
- 2016 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2016
- Decision
- Carried
Conference deplores the decision of the National Joint Council (NJC) Committee, on 27 April 2016, on a divided vote, to accept the pay offer from the employers for local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (the Local Government Association – LGA).
This decision is deeply flawed for a number of reasons:
1. The pay award will perpetuate the erosion of Local Government pay in real terms which has been cut by nearly 20% since 2009.
2. The purpose of the NJC is in question if it only delivers pay restraint.
3. Given the proposals in the Tory Trade Union Act, there are more obstacles in the way of a national pay strategy.
4. The decision undermines the credibility of the union in the eyes of the members, making it seem indecisive, weak, and ultimately undemocratic, particularly when an extensive consultation exercise had indicated a rejection of the offer and support for Industrial Action. This adds to a growing impression in the minds of many members that the union’s national leadership are reluctant to lead a fight on their behalf.
Conference notes that UNISON members rejected the LGA’s offer, with nearly two thirds – 64% – voting to reject and 35% voting to accept it.
Conference believes that members rejected the employers’ pay offer, on the recommendation of the NJC Committee, because;
a) 60% of NJC employees on scale point 18 and above were offered just 1% on 1 April in 2016 and 2017. The offer was for two years. Retail price index (RPI) inflation stood in February at 1% but is predicted to rise to as much as 3% in 2017 and 3.3% in 2018. The acceptance of this offer means that the value of the majority of our members’ pay will decline even further. This is compounded by the fact that members in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) are now paying additional 1.4% National Insurance contributions from 1 April 2016 when ‘contracting out’ ended, further reducing our take home pay.
b) The higher increases on scale points 6 – 17 have been made to ensure that the lowest paid NJC employees reach the level of the statutory National Living Wage of £7.20 an hour on 1 April 2016 (which employers had already implemented when the NJC Committee agreed to accept the offer). These higher increases are to ensure that employers comply with the National Living Wage law. Members would have to be paid them – whether or not they were included in the offer – although some of the increase necessary in future years has been brought forward. The higher rises on the lower pay scales are also to ensure that employers ‘keep ahead’ of further rises needed to reach the National Living Wage rate in 2020 – likely to be £9.35 an hour.
Conference recollects that Local Government Conference 2014 agreed 10 principles to form the basis of revised pay consultation procedures for the Service Group and that one of these principles was to ensure that the Service Group Conference has, so far as is practicable, the final say on all matters concerning the service group, including pay consultation.
Conference further notes that the pay consultation procedures endorsed at the Special Local Government Conference in 2015 state that “the final decision will be taken as a result of the pay consultation with all members.” The pay consultation procedure also provides that “following the workplace consultation exercise, no further offers will be accepted without further consultation with the membership.” Conference is clear that this provision must also be read as precluding acceptance of a pay offer which has been rejected by the members in the consultation exercise without further consultation.
Conference notes the following key chronology of events leading up to the decision of the UNISON NJC Committee to accept the employers’ pay offer without a mandate to do so from the members:
9th December 2015: The LGA makes its formal final pay offer in writing. This triggers the requirement to consult members as set out in the Service Group Pay Consultation Procedure agreed by Conference.
7th January 2016: The UNISON NJC Committee agrees to consult members with a recommendation that the employers’ pay offer is REJECTED and that members indicate their support for “a concerted campaign at political level and industrial action up to and including all out strike action”.
18th February 2016: The membership consultation concludes. The outcome is that 232 of the 285 eligible branches responded to the consultation (81% branch response rate); 64% of the responding members voted to REJECT the pay offer and supported industrial action; 10 of the 11 NJC nations/regions produced aggregate rejections of the offer.
23rd February 2016: The UNISON NJC Committee agreed to i) confirm that rejection of the offer was the outcome of the membership consultation, ii) seek to reopen negotiations with the LGA for an improved offer and single year settlement), iii) formally request that UNISON’s Industrial Action Committee (IAC) approves a full industrial action ballot for strike action.
17th March 2016: Members of UNISON’s IAC are informed by email that the IAC meeting scheduled for 18th March 2016, at which the NJC Committee’s request was due to be considered, has been postponed on the basis that “the National Secretary has reported that the employers will be meeting on 1 April to consider the unions’ proposal for a revised agreement; and says the NJC chairperson “feels that, given that the employers are not meeting until 1 April and that there are three different positions amongst the unions at this point, it would be better to have the IAC after the employers have met.”
1st April 2016: The LGA considers the unions’ proposal to reopen negotiations and confirms to the unions that the final offer remains as was and that no further pay negotiations will ensue.
5th April 2016: The UNISON NJC Committee meets to consider the response of the LGA. The Committee re-affirms its decision to formally request the IAC approves a full industrial action ballot for strike action (by a vote of 19 to 7).
13th April 2016: UNISON’s IAC Committee defers making a decision on the NJC Committee’s ballot request. The IAC refers it back requesting that the NJC Committee considers a further consultation of regional local government committees to gauge support for commencing industrial action with two days of successive strike action in September. The IAC also agreed that preparation of the ballot register should commence immediately.
13th April 2016: Following the IAC meeting, on the same day, NJC Committee members are sent an email by the National Secretary which i) set out the request of the IAC Committee; ii) asked NJC Committee members if they were prepared to respond to the IAC request by email (and if so a follow up e-mail consultation on the specific question would be sent); iii) or if NJC Committee members would prefer a meeting in person to discuss the IAC request. NJC Committee members were asked to respond by 18th April 2016.
20th April 2016: The National Secretary sent NJC Committee members a further e-mail which i) reported that a majority of responding NJC Committee members had indicated they were happy to respond to the IAC request by e-mail; ii) asked NJC Committee members to indicate their preference for one of the following – “You agree to the consultation of members over the action proposed by the IAC, or, You don’t agree to a further consultation and wish to proceed to a formal industrial action ballot”.
25th April 2016: The National Secretary informs NJC Committee members the outcome of this e-mail consultation is a majority decision (by 20 to 8) to agree to the IAC’s request for further consultation. The National Secretary informs the NJC Committee members that their meeting on 27th April 2016 would now discuss and agree the basis of further consultation.
27th April 2016: The NJC Committee meets to consider the basis of further consultation in light of its e-mail decision to agree to the IAC’s request. A proposal was made to refer the IAC request back to the IAC and for the NJC Committee to yet again restate its existing decisions to formally request an industrial action ballot is approved. This proposal was ruled as being out of order for discussion. A proposal was then made that the NJC Committee should agree not to hold further consultation – as it had decided to – but instead to withdraw its formal request to the IAC for approval to ballot for strike action. This proposal was ruled as being in order for discussion. Clarification was sought that to agree such a proposal would mean the UNISON NJC Committee was accepting the LGA pay offer. Clarification was provided that this would be the effect of agreeing such a proposal. This proposal was then put to the vote and agreed by 13 to 10.
Conference also notes that Branches have never been officially informed of the request made by the IAC to the NJC Committee to consider further consultation, or the decision of the NJC Committee to agree to the IAC request, or that the stated purpose of the NJC Committee meeting of 27th April 2016 was to determine the basis of further consultation.
Conference further notes the following key sections from The Service Group Pay Consultation Procedures:
At Part 7 j – “Following the workplace consultation exercise, no further offers will be accepted without further consultation with the membership”.
At Part 7 k – “However, the final decision will be taken as a result of the pay consultation with all members”.
At Part 8 – “The Service Group Executive believes that this consultation procedure provides a sound approach for consulting all members on the acceptability of employers’ pay offers”.
Conference notes that the circumstances of the NJC Committee decision on 27 April were those in which, the NJC Committee having requested a ballot for industrial action, the Industrial Action Committee (IAC) of the National Executive Council (NEC) had referred this request back to the NJC Committee to consult on the level of support for the strike action proposed by the NJC Committee.
Conference appreciates that the NJC Committee faced a difficult decision as members had rejected the pay offer but several regions had reported that they did not feel they could mobilise sufficient sustained industrial action. Conference notes, however, that the pay consultation procedures make provision for such circumstances as they envisage that the Union will call a delegate meeting of all branches with members covered by the Green Book where the NJC Committee is not given a clear mandate.
Conference concludes that the NJC Committee did not have authority to accept the LGA pay offer on 27 April. We believe they had no mandate for this decision which is contrary to the principles agreed at the Special Local Government Conference in 2015 which stated that decisions should be taken “as a result of the pay consultation with all members”.
Conference concludes that:
i. The LGA’s final pay offer was put to members with a recommendation from the UNISON NJC Committee that members reject it and support industrial action;
ii. The pay offer was then rejected by 64% of the responding membership in the consultation, which was conducted fully in accordance with the Service Group Pay Consultation Procedure “for consulting all members on the acceptability of employers’ pay offers”;
iii. The pay offer was then formally rejected by the UNISON NJC Committee “as a result of the pay consultation with all members”;
iv. There has been no further consultation with the membership (whether through the Consultation Procedure or by way of a ballot for industrial action);
v. The same pay offer that was rejected by the membership through the agreed procedures was then accepted by the UNISON NJC Committee on 27th April 2016;
vi. The actions of the UNISON NJC Committee at its meeting on 27th April 2016 run contrary to the Service Group Pay Consultation Procedures – as agreed and amended by successive Service Group Conferences – and, as such, the UNISON NJC Committee breached conference policy and further to this acted outside of its authority;
Conference further notes that, in accordance with UNISON Rules the policies of a Service Group shall be determined by the Group’s Conference.
Conference agrees that the current arrangements, construct and dynamics of NJC “national” sector bargaining are consistently failing our NJC conditioned members; exacerbating in-work poverty; partly responsible for recruitment and retention problems; reflecting the “national” union in a negative light to local government members and activists; becoming increasingly irrelevant and potentially even problematic in an environment where changing service/employer/employment configurations are challenging some of the traditional definitions of ‘sector’ and ‘occupation’.
Conference therefore resolves:
A. To censure the NJC Committee for accepting the LGA pay offer in breach of UNISON’s pay consultation procedures;
B. To instruct the SGE to review the structure and organisation of the NJC Sector Committee. The Service Group Executive and the NJC nations/regions shall – collectively and independently – review their experience of NJC “national” sector bargaining and their aspirations, positions, operating environments, organisation and opportunities to determine the most appropriate means to further the interests of members;
C. To instruct the SGE to amend the Service Group pay consultation procedures to clarify that pay offers rejected by members in a consultation exercise may not be accepted without either further consultation, a delegate meeting of all branches with members covered by the relevant pay offer, or a decision of this Conference.
Conference also agrees to instruct the Service Group Executive:
D. To publicise the censure of the UNISON NJC Committee directly to all Local Government members;
E. To conduct an urgent but thorough investigation into what advice was sought by and provided to the UNISON NJC Committee and its members at the meeting of 27th April 2016 in respect of the appropriateness or competence to consider the proposal made at the meeting which had the effect of accepting the LGA pay offer that had been rejected by the membership – in particular within the context of the authority of the NJC Committee as set by the framework of the Service Group Pay Consultation Procedures as agreed by Conference;
F. To refer the outcome of this investigation to the NEC if sufficient concern is raised and where appropriate under Rule;
G. To submit an NJC Pay Claim for 2017/18 and to commence the process of consulting with branches and members on the composition of this claim after Conference;
H. To ensure that all internal and external UNISON bulletins, briefings, press releases, letters, statements, quotes and similar (and where UNISON is a party or signatory to such) in respect of all NJC matters have prior lay approval through a process to be determined by the Service Group Executive.