Unions sign deal with Birmingham City Council to resolve £1billion equal pay crisis

Unions have signed a last-minute deal with Birmingham City Council, in an ongoing dispute over how to resolve the city's £1 billion equal pay crisis.

GMB, Unison and Unite have signed an addendum which sets out a pay equity plan, aiming to eliminate the risk of strike action and ensure equality.

Labour leader Cllr John Cotton announced all three unions - GMB, Unite and Unison - had signed up to the deal, in a speech to the city's 101 councillors at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday 12 October.

The compromise plan was said to have been agreed after last minute negotiations.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced the appointed commissioners and political advisors for Birmingham City Council, last week on Thursday 5 October.

Leading local government figure Max Caller CBE has been confirmed as the Lead Commissioner.

Today, the Labour leadership, council officers and the new Government-appointed commissioners all agreed the new way forward was the only way to break the impasse.

The original papers for this afternoon's extraordinary full council meeting told members they had 'no choice' but to back 'Option 4' - a scheme that involved bringing in a private firm to re-evaluate every job, grade and pay scale among the workforce of the city council and Birmingham Children's Trust.

Two of the other options had been deemed unlawful; while a third option had been rejected by the union.But as the meeting got under way, a new supplementary report dropped in, with councillors asked to back the alternative.

The council's own finance chief Fiona Greenway, legal chief Janie Berry and external auditors from Grant Thornton had all previously said a decision had to be made and the council had 'run out of time' to come up with alternatives.

Legal notices under Section 114 and Section 5 were issued to clarify how critical the situation was.

Cllr Cotton said he was determined to ensure a deal with union support was done, amid fears that without it the city would be plagued with further disputes and counter claims and possible strike action.He said today: "I am delighted that GMB, Unison and Unite have all signed the addendum which sets out how we will carry out the Job Evaluation Scheme at Birmingham City Council. This is a huge step forward as we seek to put our council back on a sound financial footing.”The supplementary report included a foreword from the commissioners, who said: "We are very pleased to be able to endorse this recommendation and welcome the constructive way all parties have worked to agree a solution. It is essential the council takes a clear decision at this meeting....addressing the Equal Pay issue at this meeting, is both a necessary and an important step on the road to recovery."

Councillor Cotton said he had resisted intense pressure to agree to outsource the work because he wanted to allow more time for negotiation. He also said the issuing of legal notices by the council's own officers to try to force the issue had potentially jeopardised this.He told the full council: "It has taken a lot of hard work, perseverance, and a shared determination to get to this stage, and I want to pay tribute to everyone who has been involved in the lengthy and detailed negotiations. Right down to the very last minute, we have made a huge amount of progress, thanks to a shared determination to get this over the line.""Throughout the process, I have been of the opinion that outsourcing Job Evaluation was a recipe for industrial disputes and service disruption - an outcome with no winners and plenty of losers. We have seen elsewhere in the country what can happen when industrial relations break down and that is an outcome I have consistently sought to avoid."But Conservative group leader Cllr Robert Alden cast doubt on the deal done, saying members had not had enough time to evaluate its legitimacy. "We are being asked to sign a blank cheque without the detail," he said.Cllr Roger Harmer, Lib Dems leader, said it was 'not satisfactory' that on the day of the meeting with a deadline looming a 'deal was done'. "It is a last desperate chance - we need to know what has been agreed. Getting the job evaluation process done is a massive journey - all we have done today is agree the route of the journey."