United Kingdom - Union highlights impact of pay freeze on low-paid women - March 18, 2010

Public services union UNISON has called on local government employers to withdraw their demand for a pay freeze. The union argues that women will be most affected by a freeze as three out of four local government workers are women and two-thirds of them earn less UKP 18,000 (Euro 20,000) a year. Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government, said:  “Council staff are already some of the lowest paid workers in the public sector. They are facing the grim prospect of a pay freeze from April, just as inflation is on the up. Many are worried about losing their jobs, whilst working harder than ever, covering vacant posts, to keep services running.”

English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/358;

http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1783

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.