Unions representing 40,000 thousand local government craftworkers have accused employers of treating workers with contempt and of undermining a national agreement.

The unions who represent local government craftworkers (UCATT, Unite and the GMB) finally met with Local Government Employers last week to discuss the comprehensive pay and conditions submission, which was submitted earlier this year.

The LGE refused to even discuss any part of the claim, including the non-financial matters. Outside of pay the other issues concerned apprentice training , the use of agency labour, family friendly working practices, the guaranteed provision of Personal Protective Equipment and access to an occupational health scheme.

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Unlike any other group of public sector workers, local government workers earning below £21,000, will not receive a pay raise of £250 this year.

George Guy, Acting General Secretary of UCATT, said: "Local Government Employers are treating hard working local government workers, with contempt. Even before the official pay claim was submitted, we were told that they would impose a second consecutive pay freeze. To then refuse to discuss any aspect of this carefully formulated pay claim is contemptible."

John Allott, National Officer for Construction of Unite, said: "Local Government craftworkers are now facing up to a second successive pay freeze. The attitude of the employers demonstrates that they simply don't care that workers who have dedicated themselves to serving the public and the local community are now struggling to pay their bills."

(CD/GK)