In the face of government cutbacks, the
Green led council is looking at reducing locally negotiated
allowances for council staff. These allowances go in most cases to
the least well paid.
The Policies and Resources
committee was standing room only in the public gallery of Hove Town
Hall. Workers and their supporters were made to wait almost three
hours as the issue was moved to the end of the agenda. After a long
wait the public gallery was cleared so the debate could be had behind
closed doors! This gutless move was made in the hope the gallery
would clear itself during the long meeting.
After the secret debate the Greens and
the Tories voted in favour of asking officers to 'explore' the
allowance system, while Labour voted against.
Details of the proposals will now be
made by officers with an October deadline to put the new scheme into
place. Depending on the details of the changes, most workers will see
cuts in these allowances as a line in the sand. Public sector workers
have faced years of below inflation pay rises, while the costs of
utilities, food, rent etc have all risen. This comes on top of years
of belt tightening. The Bank of England estimates that the pay packet
of the average worker is now worth 15% less than it was in the
pre-crisis period. Benefits (often topping up the wages of low-paid
workers) have also been slashed by the government.
The Greens are clearly willing to wage
a battle over this issue; when council leader Jason Kitkat was asked
why the report reserves the option of imposing any changes without
union agreement, he replied they had to keep that option open in case
it proved necessary.
They are trying to balance the books in
the face of government cuts, but instead of taking the fight to the
government they are taking it to the council workforce and service
users. Even with the best intentions the council will end up cutting
jobs, pay and services. Two years that could have been used to build
a campaign against government cuts have been wasted. The Greens have
been backed into a corner but they refuse to even consider a
fightback.
