Brighton & Hove City Council leader Jason Kitcat on the pay & allowances structure

In 2011 we inherited a deeply flawed and muddled pay and allowances structure from previous political administrations, dating back from when Brighton & Hove merged to become one council.

The lowest paid were not getting a living wage and the work that all councils have been doing on resolving equal pay legislation through ‘single status’ for employees’ was unfinished here. So the council is now consulting on proposals to bring in revised pay and allowances for staff.

The offer includes three key aspects:

1) A new fair set of allowances for staff. Under current proposals 90% of staff will see very little or no change in their take-home pay. Of those that do, the majority will actually see an increase and a minority will see some detriment, which on average will be less than £20 per week. This is not about budget savings or ‘austerity’ – in fact, based on the current proposal, the council’s pay bill is likely to go up slightly.

2) Anyone who suffers detriment will be generously compensated with a lump sump payment worth roughly three years’ worth of any reduction.

3) We are keen to work with all staff, including those in CityClean, to find new opportunities which will help offset the changes.

Some staff members are understandably concerned about what the changes mean for them, and this has led to the recent disruption to recycling and refuse services to residents. More vehicles than normal are being found to have problems, and some crews are not collecting additional waste beside a bin and are working more slowly.

Resolving pay and allowances issues without any detriment to any member of staff would be totally unaffordable.

However during the staff consultation the council welcomes suggestions on how these proposals can be improved in any way which is legal, fair and affordable so that we can resolve this issue once and for all.