Council crisis talks end in stalemate

Council workers want a 6% pay rise

Crisis talks aimed at averting more strikes by council workers have ended in stalemate after 10 hours of discussion.

The talks at the arbitration service Acas centred around a pay dispute between public sector workers and local authority employers.

They are expected to resume on Monday.

Council workers picketed outside council offices

Unions say the talks are the last chance to reach a settlement and avoid a summer of strike action and disrupted council services.

Up to one million council staff went on a 24-hour strike last month.

If an agreement is not reached another strike will be held on 14 August.

Even though the meeting lasted for 10 hours, it is understood the two sides were only in direct negotiations for less than 40 minutes.

Union leaders have vowed to continue the discussions.

A joint statement from Unison, the Transport and General Workers Union and the GMB said: "We will return on Monday ready to talk.

Decent pay

"The unions are prepared to negotiate for as long as it takes to get a decent pay rise for local government workers."

ACAS officials said both sides had been asked not comment on the detail of the talks.

However, a new pay offer from employers to the unions was reported to have been put on the table.

Employers first offered 3%, but the unions want double this figure.

Talks held at Acas last week ended with unions suggesting that employers had reneged on a deal to offer a £5 minimum wage.

Responsibilities

The BBC's local government correspondent, John Andrew, said it was likely that either a two-or three-year pay deal would be put to unions at Friday's meeting.

Similar schemes have been offered to teachers and health workers.

Some of the workers involved in the pay dispute earn less than £10,000 a year in full-time posts.

They say they have seen their responsibilities increase, while pay has effectively stood still.

Local authority employers say the unions' claim for a pay rise of 6% is equivalent to £80 a year on council tax bills and is therefore unaffordable without substantial job losses and cuts in services.