Employees at the National Joint Council for Local Government Services (NJC) have accepted a pay deal, following a long-running dispute.
The deal will see a £1,925, or 6.4%, rise for staff outside of London earning up to £49,950, with a 3.88% increase for those on higher wages. Outer London staff will receive a £2,226, or 5%, rise, while those in inner London will get a £2,352 increase up to a defined salary threshold.
The deal will be backdated to 1 April 2023 and apply to the majority of authorities with social services responsibility in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Trade unions Unison and GMB, which represent the workers, secured the deal, however, Unite is continuing to take industrial action in a small number of councils. Due to the representation numbers at the unions, numbers from Unison and GMB were enough to reach an agreement.
The agreement comes nine months after the unions lodged a 12.7% claim. NJC employers said that a £1,925 pay rise for 2023-24 was their full and final offer.
Naomi Cooke, employers’ secretary at Local Government Association, said: “A key objective in quickly consulting councils on the unions’ claim and responding to it within four weeks of receiving it, was to enable agreement to be reached in a timely manner to ensure all local government employees received the award as close as possible to the 1 April implementation date, as the national employers were acutely aware of the cost-of-living pressures the local government workforce is experiencing.”
In a statement published on X (formerly Twitter), Unison said: “Following our 2023 pay ballot results in the summer, Unison’s NJC Committee made the decision not to pursue industrial action. Unison met with the other local government unions, GMB and Unite, on Wednesday 1 November 2023, and the joint decision is to accept the pay offer of £1,925 on all pay NJC pay points, pro rata’d for part-time and term time only staff.”
