Kitcat calls for 'legal, fair and affordable' suggested solutions to Brighton pay cut crisis

I posted an item on the situation in Brighton and Hove where the local Green Party and Caroline Lucas MP have condemned the Council's pay modernisation which involves a pay cut for a minority of workers and increases for others.

Jason Kitcat, Convenor of the Green Group of councillors has responded to the criticism with this article on the Liberal Conspiracy website:

My colleagues and I on Brighton and Hove Council have led this country’s first Green local authority since May 2011, although as a minority administration we can (and do) get over-ruled by Labour and the Tories when they choose to work together.

There’s much we’ve done over the last two years which has been widely welcomed including introducing the Living Wage, building more affordable homes, protecting third sector funding, becoming the world’s first One Planet City and progressing a City Deal, but it’s fair to say that staff pay has been the most controversial issue we have had to deal with.

We inherited a deeply flawed and muddled pay and allowances structure from previous administrations, and indeed from predecessor defunct local authorities.

The lowest paid were not getting a living wage and the work on resolving single status for employee take-home pay (regardless of gender) was incomplete.

The Tory-Lib Dem cuts to local government have also hit us hard: in fact, they are the second steepest faced by any council of our type. Furthermore, we cannot raise Council Tax beyond a level Labour or the Tories would support. Although senior management pay is down to its lowest level for over ten years, the budget is exceptionally tight.

So we’re consulting on a proposal that will bring in fair pay and allowances for all who work for the council.
Building on the Living Wage we’ve already introduced for the lowest paid, we now are seeking to complete the final step of ensuring single status for all council employees.

It is very clear that this is not about budget savings and not about ‘austerity’. In fact, based on the offer under consultation, the pay bill is likely to go up slightly. Which other Council in the country can claim that?
What is the offer then? The offer includes three key aspects:

1) A new fair and simple set of allowances which is easy to understand and helps the council meet the needs of our citizens.With these new allowances 90% of staff will see very little or no change at all in their take home pay. Of those that do, the majority will actually see an increase and a minority will see some detriment. Most of those seeing detriment will, it is estimated, lose less than £25 per week. I recognise even that is a lot to some people, but not the headline figures being used by some individuals.

2) Anyone who is unfortunately suffering detriment will be generously compensated for that loss with a lump sump payment. For example someone losing between £1,001 and £1,250 a year is proposed to receive £3,550 in one-off compensation.

3) We are keen to provide new opportunities for staff. We hope that, if agreed at a future committee, changes like Bank Holiday working can increase opportunities for waste and recycling staff whilst improving services to the city by eliminating changing collection days every time there is a Bank Holiday.

Some staff will regrettably see allowances reduced, but we can see no legal and affordable way merely to increase everyone’s pay up to those levels – and we therefore propose a lump sum to compensate those staff, worth very roughly about three years’ worth of any reduction.

We have to resolve these allowances now. To do so without any detriment to any member of staff would sadly be totally unaffordable, even with Council Tax rises that would certainly not be supported by Labour and Conservative councillors.

I know this process has been controversial and could have been communicated better. Some colleagues locally have concerns about it, to say the least.

I would therefore welcome suggestions from them, as well as from staff and the unions, on how to improve these proposals in any way which is legal, fair and can be afforded within the tight budget limits effectively set by the government as well as our Labour and Tory opposition.

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For more on the proposals, see Jason’s blog here.
Jason Kitcat is a Green City Councillor. He is writing in his capacity as Convenor of the Green Group of councillors on Brighton & Hove City Council.

Mary Arnold praises Gladstone Park parents' 'exemplary work' for the school and its children

Gladstone Park parents sent a copy of their letter delivered yesterday to Michael Gove, to Cllr Mary Arnold, lead member for children and families.

Cllr Arnold replied:

Thank you for sending me a copy of your letter and for all your parents ' collective and exemplary work for the school on behalf of the children and their best interests.

I sincerely hope Michael Gove takes on board the significant improvements and recognises that changes to the management would have a disruptive and adverse effect on the school.

The local authority and  your councillors are fighting for the best outcome for pupils and parents and we trust Gladstone Park will set the example for a local solution, based on the voice of reason and avoid a forced conversion.

Crucial day for future of Gladstone Park Primary School

Gladstone Park Primary School parents yesterday presented a letter to Michael Gove at the Department for Education, backed by 572 petition signatories, calling for the school to be allowed to continue its current improvement strategy without being forced to become a sponsored academy.

They backed the request up with data evidence that showed the strong progress now being made in years 3-5 where Ofsted had previously found weakness and HMI's and the local authority's approval of the strategy now in place. Any change in school status would disrupt this progress to the detriment of the school and its pupils.

Today some of the Gladstone Park governing body will be meeting with Michael Gove to discuss the school's situation and I understand that Sarah Teather MP will also be attending the meeting. Sarah Teather lost her position working with Michael Gove in the last government re-shuffle and has since distanced herself from some Coalition policies, particularly those concerning welfare.

Caroline Lucas to join striking Brighton Council workers' picket line following proposed pay cut

The minority Green Council in Brighton recently handed over negotiations for the 'modernisation' of pay and allowances to officers of the council.

As a result about 10% of council staff  have received a settlement offer which means that while some gain, others will lose pay. City Clean workers are to strike against the pay cut and today Caroline Lucas, MP promised to join them on the picket line. The Brighton and Hove Green Party have voted to condemn the offer and expressed dismay at the decision to hand negotiations to officers.

This is Caroline's statement:

Yesterday around 10% of Brighton and Hove council staff received a settlement offer as part of a process designed to ‘modernise’ pay and allowances.

Since the negotiations began, I have made my opposition to any cuts in take home pay very clear.

I am therefore disappointed that, whilst some will gain from this process, a number will face a reduction in the money they have to live off each week.

This is unacceptable. I know from the many constituents who have written to me about this issue that they agree.

So too does the Brighton and Hove Green Party, whose members voted at a meeting last night to  condemn the offer and also expressed dismay that responsibility for the pay negotiations was handed to council officers.

With the support of the local Green Party, I have pledged to campaign against the offer made to workers, in accordance with the local and national party's democratically agreed anti-cuts and anti- austerity policies.

I plan to join striking City Clean workers and continue to stand up for workplace rights – as I promised to do when I was elected and have consistently prioritised in Parliament.

Greens should never be in the position of reducing workers' pay and to do so at a time of austerity with rising food and energy costs and benefit cuts is totally indefensible. The Green group on the council must act quickly to right this wrong.

There may well be a case to modernise pay structures which are often out-dated in local government. In one of the schools I worked in the schoolkeeper was still getting an allowance for humping scales of coal in the boiler house when the boilers were gas fired!  More seriously there are often gender inequalities involved and disparities between different groups of workers which need to be smoothed out. Modernisation may involve a narrowing in  historical differentials but in such cases there is usually short-term protection and a longer term tapering of increases so that no one ends up with less cash in their pocket this week than they were earning last week.

I understand that Brighton Council's overall wage bill is actually go up slightly as traditionally low paid workers get increases with the payment of the living wage and additional allowances and the group of workers affected by the pay cut is comparatively small.  It should be possible to sort something out quickly.