A BITTER confrontation within Dumfries and Galloway Council was avoided when the “overwhelming” majority of staff voted to end a long running equal pay battle.
Bosses had threatened to sack staff and force them to reapply for their jobs if their offer to end historic pay inequalities was rejected.
But members of Unison, GMB and Unite signalled a massive support for acceptance in a union organised ballot, ushering in wage rises of nearly £9 million for the majority of the 6,500 workforce.
Voting figures released by the unions showed 75 per cent of the Unison membership turned out with 89.6 accepting the offer. The GMB turnout was 50 per cent with 93 per cent in favour while 61 per cent of the Unite membership voted with 94 per cent in favour.
The new pay and grading structure will be backdated to April 1.
New council chief executive Gavin Stevenson was delighted with the news.
“This is a tremendous vote of confidence in the deal,” he said.
“It gives us a strong platform to get the organisation fit to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
“This deal was always about sorting out the inequalities at the heart of local government pay structures.
“Whether staff work in an office or in a manual role and whether they are male or female, their efforts will be rewarded fairly.
“We have worked in partnership with the unions throughout the lengthy negotiations and we have delivered a strong result.”
However, some members of staff, 15 per cent, will face a reduction in salary in three years time.
Sixty three per cent will get a rise with the remainder seeing no difference.
Unions have pledged to help those who have not benefited from the deal.
Unison branch secretary, Marion Stewart, was pleased with the outcome.
“This is a prime example of what can be achieved by good joint working and we are pleased the council has recognised and invested in our equality demands,” she said.
“The package has been subjected to three external independent checks and has resulted in fairer pay for many previously undervalued and underpaid female groups.”
Ann Patterson of Unite said the joint trade unions had believed the deal was the best that could be achieved by negotiation.
“We remain assured by the council’s commitment to pay equality for all staff and both sides recognise that this is just the beginning of an ongoing process to eradicate pay inequality,” she said.
Dumfries and Galloway MP Russell Brown said it was significant that union members had backed the deal as an imposed settlement would have been unacceptable.
“It’s frustrating that it has taken this long to reach this point, and that has been a source of great anxiety for many of the council’s workers,” he said.
“And while the support for this deal has proved to be very strong, it will always be the case that some people will be unhappy at the outcome of a process like this.
“But the important thing is that the process will reach a conclusion through a negotiated settlement between the council, its workers and the trade unions.
“It would have been absolutely unacceptable if the council had imposed a new pay structure against the wishes of the vast majority of those who it will affect.”
