Westminster City Council is attempting to make radical changes to the Redundancy or Premature Retirement Compensation Policy for Council Staff. Under the guise of the new law on age discrimination, the Council, rather than making a small adjustment to equality proof the existing scheme, have decided to make drastic additional changes!
The policy sets out entitlement to payments if you are faced with redundancy or premature retirement. The proposal is to reduce payments by 50% to 1.5 weeks per year of service.
Three Main Unions Oppose this Change
The NUT, GMB and UNISON, representing the overwhelming majority of Staff, oppose this change and have formally entered into a dispute with the Council on the following grounds:
- Attempts to impose the change without negotiation and agreement with the Trade Unions amounts to a unilateral change of contract;
- We do not accept that the change in compensation is required by the new Age Discrimination laws and believe that it is a cost cutting exercise;
- We wish to be given the opportunity to negotiate an equality proof policy which is not to the detriment of our members.
All three Trade Unions have used their collective bargaining rights to oppose this change of contract and wrote to the Council on 16th October 2007 requesting a negotiating meeting. The Council have responded and chosen not to negotiate on this issue and therefore the formal disputes process has been engaged meaning a Joint Staff Committee Meeting where the Trade Unions make their case to the relevant Councillors for their consideration.
The proposed change could affect you at any time, especially given Westminster's constant re-structuring. If you are facing redundancy you should contact the UNISON office so we can provide you with legal support and advice.
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