A pay rise above two per cent will cause Rutland County Council difficulties, the authority's finance boss has said. 

At yesterday's (March 4) employment committee meeting, the council's HR director Fiona Rowntree said the pay requests from the unions have come forward and there would 'be a real pressure at the bottom of the pay scale if the increase is significant'.  

Pay rises for local government workers are negotiated between trade unions and employers through the National Joint Council (NJC).  

Last year the pay award was a £1,290 flat rate payment for the lowest paid workers equivalent to 5.7 per cent, highest 2.5 per cent pay award. 

Ms Rowntree told the meeting at Catmose House: "The position currently is the Green Book [local authority staff below senior officer level] have made a claim for £3,000 lump sum across all points – that would take the bottom rate of the pay scale to £13.82 per hour. It is a 12.7 per cent rise with a plan to reach a minimum pay rate of £15 per hour; an extra day's leave, a reduction in the working week by two hours with no loss of pay and school staff having the ability to take a day's leave in term time, which the NJC (National Joint Council) estimates will cost 8.7 per cent. 

"At present the lowest point on the pay scale is £12.26 per hour – the request is for an increase to £13.82 and the national living wage is £12.21 per hour.  

"We are facing a catch-up situation – we are just above it. 

"So, there is a very real pressure at the bottom in terms of that creeping upwards which is why it has been a flat rate.  

"The chief officers pay claim is 6 per cent, or no less favourable than the green book, with an extra one day's leave and the chief executive claim is the same as it usually is, which is the same percentage point as the top of the green book scale." 



Rutland County Council has had ongoing financial struggles, including threatening the closure of Ryhall Library (Photo: Grace Kennington)

The authority is in a savings drive and council's chief finance officer Kirsty Knutton said: "If it is more than two per cent, it will cause the council difficulties in the financial year that we will have to address, if and when they come to us." 

As the authority has only budgeted for a two per cent increase any pay award above that would have to be found by reductions in department spending. 

The authority's leader Gale Waller (Lib Dem) said she had been speaking with other councillors from across the region and said: "The feeling has been quite strongly that we go for a full and final offer as we are very aware of the limits of our budgets and there is no point in going into a negotiation when you have nothing to negotiate with. 

"We are part of a national pay negotiating body. The body that I sit on regionally we do have representation at a national association, which is an opportunity to feed through what each region feels but the actual negotiations with the unions are done nationally. So, it will be what it will be, and we will have to take whatever comes out of it." 

National negotiations begin in mid-April and last year the pay award was not settled until November. 

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READ MORE: 'Squeezed, squeezed, squeezed': Rutland County Council approves budget

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