Pay freeze and unpaid leave to help save money

Local government union Unison is considering balloting its members at Blackpool Council for industrial action, including walk-outs, in protest at cost-cutting measures.

They say the council should raise council tax and look for alternative funding for the free school breakfast scheme instead of targeting workers.

Staff are being asked to accept an incremental pay freeze, five days unpaid leave and will have to pay for car parking once they relocate to new council offices in the town centre.

Peter Marsden, branch officer for Unison at Blackpool Town Hall, said: “The measures they are going to introduce will mean £2.5m is coming out of the pay packets of Blackpool staff to subsidise council spending.

“We have had four years of cuts, which have seen us agree to increment freezes in the past, and unpaid holiday.

“But these sacrifices haven’t saved jobs, and services are suffering.

“Members are saying they cannot continue to take these financial hits.

“We have people on poverty wages and it is crucifying them.”

Unison, which held a demonstration outside the town hall earlier this month, says a 1.99 per cent increase in council tax would bring in an extra £700,000 a year, while the £1.3m cost of free school breakfasts should be met by the school’s own budgets.

But Blackpool Council leader Coun Simon Blackburn said: “While I respect the position of the trade union, they are fully aware that the school breakfast scheme is wholly funded by public health funding, and equally aware that no matter how many times they ask us to raise the tax burden on ordinary Blackpool families, our answer will remain the same. We are not a tax and spend party.”

The council is meeting today to finalise the budget for 2014/15.