Decision due on council wages

The final decision on the controversial job evaluation scheme for Staffordshire County Council employees will be made tomorrow.

The council's cabinet is being recommended to go ahead with the implementation of single status which will cost £85 million and see seven out of 10 contracted employees, barring school and casual staff, get wage rises from April 1.

• 8,389 – 68.13 per cent – get an increase.

• 2,744 – 22.29 per cent – will stay the same.

• 1,180 – 9.58 per cent – lose pay from April, 2011.

The average annual wage increase across the authority is £1,256.24, while the average wage decrease is £1,276.43.

It has meant the council finding an extra £50 million more than originally planned as employees getting increases will receive up to four years back pay.

The extra money will partly be found from borrowing which would be paid back over seven years.

The new scheme will put Staffordshire into the top 25 per cent of local government payers and it is hoped it will improve the council's ability to retain staff and recruitment for difficult to fill posts including social workers.

The previous county council job evaluation scheme, which would have cost £30.5 million, was thrown out a year ago after a storm of protest from employees.

It was to have been implemented from April last year.

That scheme would have seen 28 per cent of core staff lose pay and 36 per cent get increases with only three years of back pay.

Under the new scheme those to lose pay would enter a three-year pay protection procedure under which levels would be maintained until 2011.

The details of the scheme for non-teaching staff at schools have yet to be revealed.

Stafford Borough Council has yet to announce the outcome of its work on single status.

Job evaluation is a national agreement between local government employers and trade unions – Unison, GMB and T&G.