West Midlands: Your comments...

Nick Watson The Politics Show West Midlands

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Some of your comments on today's programme...

Calls

I work for the housing department at Birmingham City Council and I'm due to lose money. I don't think the payment evaluations were done correctly and they should be re-done.
Anon, England

I work in the housing department. It's absolutely disgusting how the council are treating their employees. You can't get through on the helpline telephone number at all.
Richard, Sutton Coldfield

People must be mindful that this is a fair way to go. If people are being overpaid at the moment, then the new policy will be fairer.
David, Edgbaston

Does this equality policy apply to officers in local government? I've got a feeling that they may be excluded from this, which hardly seems fair.
Gill, Sutton Coldfield

I am a female council worker who has lost out through this scheme. I've had a pay cut and I'm not happy about it.
Anon, England

At the end of the day it's people like me, an old-age pensioner, who is always picking up the bill. I have no sympathy for them at all.
Thomas, Stroud

This is a disgrace. The policy should not be applied to Birmingham and they should take their case to the European Court. This wouldn't have happened fifty years ago.
Lily, Coventry

These pay cuts are frozen for 2 years. Shopping bills and utility bills aren't frozen. What's going to happen 2 years down the line? It's the most unfair thing that has even happened, and Senior Managers are exempt from it.
Heather, Birmingham

I'm a council worker from Birmingham. It's OK for the council to cut our money, but not OK for them to get some outsiders in to advise them where to cut these payments. Residents in Birmingham don't realise just how much money this council is wasting.
Anon, England

I work for Birmingham City Council. Mr Rudge mentioned the helpline that has been set up for staff. The people running the helpline are no use at all. A colleague of mine has been given two different answers to the same question!
Lisa, England

We've been through this single-status scheme in Coventry and it's not about inequality at all. If this is aimed at reducing the inequality in pay, then the policy should be applied all across the council, with Senior Managers not being exempt.
Harvey, Coventry

I work for Birmingham City Council and I'm about to lose £4,700. My colleague and I both do specialised jobs and now we're losing money. I've heard that some people in the housing department are actually having their pay doubled!
Anon, England

I'm an annoyed council worker from Birmingham. Why haven't the people higher up the scale had their salaries cut? They're all looking after themselves and don't care about us people at the lower end of the scale.
Anon, Birmingham

I give my full support to the members of the council who are going to lose money. It is fundamentally wrong to rob people who are doing an excellent job. I can't understand why the unions have allowed this to go through. If strike action does take place, I will fully support it. I'm a council tax payers and this makes me wonder whether I should keep contributing to the Conservative Party who seem to be involved with all this.
Mr Lock, Birmingham

E-mails

I am 56 years old and have worked for Birmingham City Council for almost 14 years. I have worked my way up from secretary to Customer Involvement Officer/Neighbourbhood Support Officer. As Customer Involvement Officer I am grade SO2 which pays £24,700. This will be cut to £22,200 - a loss of £2,500. As Neighbourhood Support Officer, on which I am working a 12 month secondment, I am also paid £24,700 - the salary for this role will drop to £13,560 -£17,500 a drop of £7-£10.000. I am absolutely appalled by BCC's treatment of its staff because like all employees I work to a policy of fairness, equal pay and inclusion - something it seems Alan Rudge does not follow. pay and grading structure, are not affected by it.
Lynne Park, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

I would like to know if the figures for winners and losers Mr Rudge is quoting includes school support staff, who are still waiting to here how this is going to affect their salaries. Heads are attending briefings through November and early December, and I believe the council are saying to schools Governors will have to make decisions - how can this be equal pay if each school makes it own decisions? If school support staff still do not know their position either the percentages of winners and losers are wrong or we are being delibrately kept in the dark for even longer!
Anon, UK

Re Single Status. What people are forgetting, is that people who stand to lose money have had the extra payment for many years, over those who are less well paid for the exactly the same job, elsewhere in the country. Grossly unfair. I didn't hear them screaming for those lowest paid workers to be paid a fair deal for all the years they have lost out, did you?
Helen Donovan, England

I would like to invite Councillor Rudge to explain to me personally why he thinks taking a third of my salary off me is justifiable. I understand cuts need to be made but an equal amount across the whole of the City Council employees earning more than for example £16000 would have been a fairer way of achieving the end result. I have not heard of any low paid workers gaining considerable amounts in fact one cleaner I know has lost £2000 on an already considerably low wage. How can this system be fair? They have to realise how much upset, stress and the lack of motivation this is causing throughout the whole Council. How can we provide the best services to the customers of Birmingham when we are being treated like this? This really has upset me and my family and many families throughout Birmingham. I have always thought Birmingham City Council was a caring employer. Not anymore.
Sandra Bishop, England

As a manager within the organisation of around 40 staff, I have 50% losers and 50% who stay on their previous salary - I have no-one who gains. I will support all my staff through the appeals process but I and they are being hampered by not having access to basic information which will allow staff to appeal accurately. The appeals process is designed to get the right result for the wage bill to balance. I have been a long time supporter of the Equal Pay Act and feel strongly that imbalances in pay between women and men doing the same or equivalent work should be eradicated however I do not believe that this process will achieve that effect. From the information presented to me as a manager I can clearly see a number of errors within the process and I would like to see your programme challenge on the basis of the quality control of the process - staff would have been more accepting of the results if there was any trust that the process was itself fair and equally applied. I know of several cases where staff have submitted identical job evaluation forms and yet have been evaluated in different pay scales. This suggests very strongly that manipulation of individual scores is happening and is precisely why Alan Rudge will not allow comparison between jobs as part of the appeals process. Staff will leave the organisation in order to defend their lifestyles, services will be affected and those staff trapped because they have over 20 years invested in local government and their pensions, will work to rule to the detriment of services to the public which depend on staff goodwill. Single Status agreements have been put in place within the police forces and the NHS without staff losing money - new starters start on the revised pay scales - why can't we have an implementation that doesn't devastate families.
Anon, England

I am one of the losers. I am set to lose £6000 while people doing the same job in other departments have gained! Where's the equality? This has happened all over the Council where people doing the same jobs in different departments are being paid different grades, it's an absolute fiasco. What Cllr Rudge fails to realise is that much of the extra duties that people take on are done on a goodwill basis, that has now been lost, I for one am ready to take strike action and not carry out any additional duties until the Council sees sense and starts negotiations with the unions. I support pay and grading but only if it's fair and carried out by competently trained job analysts. Birmingham City Council needs to restart the process and ensure that the job analysts are competent to do the job because this fiasco has certainly proved that they aren't.
Joanne, England

I am a General Assistant in a school kitchen. I received my pay and grading pack last week. Under this new package I will gain an extra 11p an hour. As a cleaner in a primary school my wage will go up by 9p an hour, which gives me the grand total of an extra £3.43 a week for 33 hours work. I hear figures bandied around like 4.5% pay rises and wonder where the rest of mine is.
Julie Dent, West midlands

I'm losing £4k through single status. People I formerly worked with in another department have the same job description as me and we completed a job evaluation questionnaire together for Single Status. They've not lost a penny - I've lost £4k. How can that be right? The whole process is a shambles.
Eddie, United Kingdom

I've been a dinner lady for over ten years and have just received (and accepted) my settlement pay, and am angry that I've been underpaid all these years. The fact is that the small minority that are getting pay cuts are considered to have been overpaid anyway. It's now been made clear that certain workers painting road signs and maintaining billboards have been on an excess of £30,000 a year! What do these people want? Don't get me wrong, the new structure is to iron out some disgraceful wrong-doings of the council, but please, the vast majority of those who have been wronged pay-wise are better off.
Lyndsey, Birmingham

When I applied for my position in Birmingham City Council, I understood that the position was clearly assessed and thus the pay in place attracted staff with skills and experience. For me single status is a clear breach of contract, because over the years I have earned raises through hard work. How am I now supposed to manage my finances on less? I notice that councillors and chief officers are not taking a cut!
Eileen Daley, Birmingham England

I work for the Housing Department at Birmingham City Council and I can tell you that the majority of people at our offices have taken a £3000 to £8000 pay cut. All I can say is morale is at an all time low, strike action is imminent as far as I can gather, people are genuinely going to lose their homes as is being stated and it is just appalling the way the council are dealing with this matter. They have a helpline for staff which is permanently engaged and there is nothing our immediate manager can do to support.
Clive, Birmingham

Did Cllr Rudge mention that the very top level of staff and the highest earners are not affected by the pay and grading review? My partner who only earns £18,000 has had his pay cut to £13,252. A colleague has had her pay cut from £28,000 to £16,000 as she is a single mum. I have yet to meet someone whose pay has increased. It's not fair.
Anon, England

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