Unions dismissed the local government employers 2% pay offer as "insulting and demeaning".  Coming on the day when inflation is a 4.6%.  UNISON and its fellow trade unions rejected the offer as "not good enough to consult on".  The employers organisation asked for further talks and agreed to take the unions rejection back to local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

UNISON head of local government Heather Wakefield said, "This is effectively a pay cut.  With today's inflation rates going up to 4.6% and living costs rising much faster than council workers pay, millions of workers are being pushed closer to the breadline.  "this is a paltry pay award which will drive down the morale of staff further.

 "Our members are angry.  70% of empoyers have failed to complete pay and grading reviews promised by the end of this month.  In addition, the review of the local government pension scheme has yet to be completed.

last month, UNISON, TGWU and GMB submitted a local government pay claim to employers covering some 1.3 million council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The claim included

• any deal was for one year only
• 5% award increase or £1000 whichever is the greater
• a guaranteed minimum hourly rate of £6.30
• an increase in basic annual leave entitlement to 25 days per year as the minimum entitlement for all employees
• a reduction in the standard working week to 35 hours without loss of pay
• an increase in the night shift allowance over a 3-year period from a time and a third to time and a half to time and three quarters, to double time in the final year
• an increase in the sleep-in allowance to £60

More than 60% of those people earn just £15,825 or less around £8,000 less than the national average and 75% of them are women.