HUNDREDS of disgruntled City of York Council employees have appealed against a decision to change their pay – including some whose salaries have gone up.

A deadline for staff who lost out under the authority’s recent pay shake-up has now passed, with 835 choosing to appeal against what they see as unfair changes to their salary.

Most have seen their pay fall, but a council spokeswoman said some whose pay had increased were also unhappy, feeling their increases should have been greater.

The Unison trade union and the council said today the figure was broadly in line with their expectations. Both sides will now prepare for a series of hearings and reviews. It is hoped all appeals will be heard by the end of March.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: “All staff who lodged an appeal will shortly receive a letter confirming receipt of the appeal and advising them of the process.”

She said the appeals would be prioritised based on the impact of the pay and grading review, with those who have seen a reduction in their pay being looked at first.

All those who appealed have had to argue that their job description is inaccurate, or out of date. Those descriptions were used as the basis for restructuring the council’s pay scales, in line with national legislation.

A spokeswoman for the council’s Unison branch blamed poor communication for so many descriptions being wrong.

She said: “We would have liked the number of appeals to have been lower, as it is a lot of work for us.

“We think it’s largely a product of the message not getting out clearly enough from management and having these job descriptions updated and agreed before going for scoring in the first place. Management just do not understand the significance of getting the descriptions right.

“We think communication, which is never a strong point in the council, could have been better.”

The results of the pay and grading review were accepted by council staff late last year, after lengthy negotiations.

The council’s chief executive Bill McCarthy said the review had been “enormously complex and challenging”, but had helped create a “much simpler, more transparent pay structure for the future”.