Birmingham council wants people to take pay cuts or get fired:
The council wants to abolish allowances—additional payments workers receive for working unsociable hours and difficult shifts, including weekend working.
Allowances can make up a third of an employee’s take home pay.
A worker who currently earns £15,233 a year could see their wages slashed to £11,794—a loss of £3,439 or 23 percent.
Someone who now earns £19,027 could drop to £13,125—a loss of £5,902 or 31 percent.
There is of course no intention of allowing workers to refuse working on difficult shifts… This is a direct assault on the council’s workers and hits those workers who are already doing what are often difficult jobs for low wages. For many of them those allowances are needed to pay the bills; they can’t survive on just the base salary. And Birmingham isn’t the only council to play this game, just the first. According to Socialist Worker the following councils have also issued letters:
- 8,500 in Sheffield
- All 11,000 council workers in Barnsley
- 8,500 in Sheffield
- 8,000 in Walsall
- 4,000 in Croydon
- 800 in Oldham
- 500 in Havering
This is the way in which the Tories want to solve Britain’s “debt crisis”.