Pay rise for Council staff and apprentices

Frontline staff and apprentices at Cheshire East Council are to get a welcome pay boost after a series of announcements made on Thursday, February 26th.

Council leader Councillor Michael Jones told a meeting of Full Council that the authority is committing to the introduction of the Living Wage, which means that following a period of consultation, directly-employed Council staff at the lower end of the pay scale will earn a minimum of £7.85 per hour.

Cheshire East is to consult with partners, including schools, on the move during the coming year.

Additionally, the fifty apprentices employed by the authority are to receive pay rises so the new rates of pay will meet the national minimum apprenticeship pay rate for each age group.

Councillor Michael Jones said: "Our frontline staff work extremely hard for the taxpayer and they thoroughly deserve to be able to earn a fair wage which allows them to provide for themselves and their families.

"We will soon be consulting on the Living Wage with our partners but it is entirely the right thing to do, as is looking after our young apprentices.

"Apprentices are our future and we want to equip them with the skills to make a real difference during their working lives. Our apprentices are bright and enthusiastic people who deserve improved rates of pay."

Cllr Jones added: "We remain committed to ensuring we do not offer 'zero-hours' contracts, as they are often termed in the media.

"The Council is a dynamic business which has a number of roles where flexibility is required. We therefore offer 'permanent variable hours' contracts on local Government terms and conditions.

"These arrangements are regularly reviewed with the individual employees."

Councillor Barry Moran, Cabinet member in charge of performance, said: "We do not restrict any workers' wish to work for other employers if they only work a few hours for Cheshire East Council.

"Some services have a fluctuating demand for staff, such as seasonal work at Tatton Park. We offer permanent variable hours contracts to meet these needs and adopt good practice set out by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)."

He added: "This is all great news for our staff. We pride ourselves on being a Residents First Council but we also highly value our workers."

Tags:
Cheshire East Council
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Comments

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Pete Taylor
Thursday 5th March 2015 at 9:22 pm
I'm delighted to see that someone has handed Michael Jones his own trumpet and that he is blowing it again- could there be an election coming?
I am equally pleased to see that the apprentices will soon be paid £7.85 per hour; no doubt they will be inspired by the news that top Council Employees, e.g. Chief Exec Mike Suarez, have just been awarded (not sure by whom) a £10k bonus on top of their salary. In Mike's case, this is a total of £160k p.a. Of course there are some sour-faced individuals who have pointed out that he is just doing his job, which he signed up for without any hint of a bonus in his terms and conditions.