York council staff to take unpaid leave as perks cut

The new arrangements, thrashed out between City of York Council and trade unions, will see about 4,000 staff lose their free Park&Ride passes in January, and mileage rates will be reduced in a move aimed at saving £250,000 this year and £175,000 in each subsequent year. The unpaid day’s leave will be compulsory for all employees, apart from those in schools. Chief executive Kersten England and senior officers will be included, but councillors will not. The unpaid day must be taken by March 31 next year.

Flexitime will also be introduced across all services and more salary-sacrifice schemes, where workers can choose a tax-free salary deduction to pay for expenses such as travel, childcare and gym membership, will be developed.

The council, which has to save £21 million this year and £22 million over the next two years, said the new terms and conditions would offer extra support for lower-paid workers, provide more retraining, help workers threatened with redundancy find other roles in the authority, and guarantee rights to redundancy payments for those at the end of temporary redeployment periods.

Mrs England said: “Like councils across the country, York is facing some really difficult budgetary decisions, including those around pay and conditions. The agreement we have reached with the unions will bring terms and conditions for staff at the council in line with those of most other authorities, but we recognise this will have a financial impact on staff. We will be working hard to mitigate the impact of the changes, particularly among the lower-paid, but the agreement will provide increased job security and redeployment to the majority of our workforce.”

Heather McKenzie, the council’s Unison branch secretary and convenor, said negotiations had been “quite difficult”, but its members and those of the GMB and Unite unions had voted to accept the arrangements.

She said: “The council has looked for ways its employees can help with its finances, and in return it has guaranteed more robust processes to help protect as many jobs as possible.”

She said the council had also guaranteed a robust redeployment policy to try to help people whose jobs may be lost to find new ones.

Coun Julie Gunnell, cabinet member for corporate services, praised council employees for their “hard work and dedication during this challenging time”.

Conservative group leader Coun Ian Gillies said: “It’s unfortunate that we as a council have to take these measures, which, to be fair, the private sector has been in the process of addressing over the past two years.”