FAIR PAY

 

Nottingham City Council - Budget Cuts, Redundancies and Tax Rises

The BBC reports that Nottingham City Council is not only increasing council tax by 2.9%, but is also facing budget pressures that Unison fears will "be of a similar scale as last year which saw 300 posts lost."

The Labour-run council said, "...we are having to make reductions in some areas because of the massive pressures on child protection, large pressures with the growing numbers of elderly and disabled."

Compare and contrast this with the Tory-controlled County Council's pronouncement on their own budget cuts:

"...we need to re-allocate £33m to meet the ever increasing demand for our services, especially in adult social care and children's safeguarding. In these areas alone, we have to find an additional £15.5m and £5m respectively, just to cater for our aging population and to meet the rise in safeguarding referrals that have followed the Baby Peter case. The trends in Nottinghamshire match the trends nationally."

Meanwhile, Nottingham tram staff are being urged to accept a pay freeze. The linked article notes that NET (Nottingham Express Transit) staff were previously threatened with a pay freeze and a change to Terms and Conditions. The GMB union will be balloting on the revised deal in January with a recommendation that members accept.

NET is a joint, 30-year PFI venture between Transdev and NCT (Nottingham City Transport). Nottingham City Transport is majority-owned by the City Council.

Thanks to the NCCLOLs Blog for drawing my attention to budget cuts at Nottingham City Council.
Image credit.