UNISON Cymru/Wales has today welcomed the Welsh government’s commitment on pay for top Council officials and is calling for the deal to go one step further and cap council leader’s pay.
Dominic MacAskill, UNISON Cymru/Wales head of local government, said:
“UNISON welcomes the Welsh Government’s commitment regarding chief officer pay. We believe that it is only fair that chief officer pay is open to scrutiny.
“The situation where chief officers could be awarded huge pay rises whilst the rest of the workforce is experiencing a long term pay freeze is clearly unjust and untenable.
“UNISON believes that the Welsh Government has the opportunity to go a step further and cap chief officer pay. We believe that Chief Officer pay should be no more than 12 times the lowest paid council worker*.
“We believe that this measure would ensure that council leaders don’t lose touch with their lowest paid members of staff.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
The idea of a cap on Chief Officers pay is the policy of the staff side unions (UNISON, GMB & UNITE) of the Joint Council for Wales (which is the organisation that brings the employers WLGA together with the Local Government trade unions).
UNISON has a stall at the WLGA conference being held in City Hall, Cardiff, 20 June.
UNISON will be lobbying the WLGA on:
- The living wage;
- UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter;
- the need to merger the 8 Welsh Local Government Pensions Schemes to generate over £60 million/year in efficiency savings.
UNISON will be available for comment at the conference.
For further information, please contact Amber Courtney, 02920 729453, a.courtney@unison.co.uk, 07908 143412 or Dominic MacAskill, d.macaskill@unison.co.uk, 07944 171 605.