The price of equal pay

Nick Watson Producer Politics Show West Midlands

Passions are running high... and low

How would you feel if a letter dropped onto your doormat telling you your salary was about to be slashed but your job remains the same?

You can read some of your comments on the programme

That is exactly the situation faced by around 6,000 Birmingham City Council workers as part of a council strategy to implement equal pay laws.

Some face losing thousands of pounds from their annual pay packet, meaning their homes are at risk.

Strikes have already been threatened.

I'm going to lose my house Sandra Bishop, Highways Dept

'Not worth the money'

Sandra Bishop, who works in the city council's Highways Department, says she is set to lose around £8,000 a year.

"I'm going to lose my house. It's effectively £650 per month which will be my mortgage," she explained.

Another council worker, Sue Rudge, said: "You can work for 33 years and what they want to say to me is 'Sue, sorry you're just not worth the money we are paying you' and I am."

Back pay

On the other side of the equation some staff will see their pay rise with some workers getting back pay - which in some cases amounts to as much as £40,000.

The purpose of restructuring pay grades, in this way, is to ensure that female staff are paid the same as their male colleagues as part of the 1997 National Single Status Agreement.

The agreement was supported by trade unions at the time and it has already been implemented by many councils across the country with varying degrees of hostility.

Of the staff affected, 45% are going to get a considerable increase Cllr Alan Rudge, Birmingham City Council

Three year protection

In Birmingham, the council point out that most of its 41,000 staff will either benefit or see their salaries untouched by the current process.

"Of the staff affected, 45% are going to get a considerable increase in their salary and over 40% will be no different," said Cllr Alan Rudge (Con), Cabinet Member with responsibility for Human Resources.

"So 14% of our staff will have a reduction in their salary, but no one will have a cut at all for three years. There's three years protection."

Winter of discontent?

Five unions are expected to ballot for strike action once the full impact of the new pay system emerges and protest rallies have already taken place.

If there is a positive vote for strike action it could plunge Europe's largest local authority into its own winter of discontent with walk-outs possible in January.

After a rally last week, spokesman for the Joint Unions, Steve Foster said: "This has been rail-roaded through by the city. A lot of staff are angry, many will lose thousands from their pay packets.

"We are planning an even bigger rally next month when people know exactly how they are affected."

Our reporter Katie Inman has been looking at the issues and asks if it will be possible to find a resolution without strikes.

Also in the programme ...

Their future is in others' hands

As many as 25 primary schools in Shropshire could be closed because there are just not enough children around to keep them open.

The county has 141 primary schools in total at the moment but that number could soon fall - with 20 facing outright closure and another 10 being amalgamated into five.

Shropshire County Council has not produced a list of the schools it is closing yet but there is a general formula they are working to.

Demographics

This is causing anxiety amongst parents, teachers and governors in village schools Philip Dunne MP, Ludlow

Put simply, schools which are fewer than six miles from their neighbours and which have less than four different year group classes are at risk.

The reason is demographics: fewer children are born in Shropshire, as younger families leave because of a lack of affordable homes.

At the same time, the number of retired people is rising.

Bearing the brunt of these changes is rural south and north Shropshire, where the problem is particularly acute.

Village schools

"This is causing anxiety amongst parents, teachers and governors in village schools," said the Ludlow MP Philip Dunne (Con).

And the problem could get even worse in the coming years as the numbers continue to fall.

The government wants schools to have no more than 10% of school places empty but by 2010, Shropshire County Council says 110 out of its 141 primary schools will fall into this category, with more than 50 of them being a quarter empty.

Our Political Editor Patrick Burns asks what this exit of youth means for the future of schools in Shropshire.

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