We recently balloted all our members who are employed on National Joint Council for Local Government (NJC) terms and conditions; this includes our county council, district council, National Park and many Academy members.

Our result was submitted to our Regional Office. Every local government branch in Yorkshire & Humberside voted to accept. Each region then submitted their result to the national NJC committee.

UNISON’s National NJC Committee met last Friday (21 August) to consider the results of the consultation of local government members in England, Northern Ireland and Cymru/Wales. Overall members voted by 2 to 1 to accept the employers’ offer on a higher than usual turnout. Consequently the NJC Committee agreed to accept the offer while noting that it fell far short of our claim and did not properly reward a workforce of key workers who have gone above and beyond all expectations during the COVID pandemic. The Committee agreed that we should now start work on next year’s claim and call on the employers’ to work with us to secure additional funding from central Government so that workers in Local Government get the decent reward they deserve.

The Branch has been advised by NYCC that, for those employed by them, the pay award will be in September’s pay, with back pay to 1 April 2020. For those employed by other employers, the branch will instigate contact with them to ensure a swift implementation. If you are not sure that your employer is implementing the pay award correctly, and/or is not back dating fully to 1 April please let the branch office know.