Labour Counci demands wage cuts
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The Direct Works department of Sandwell Council are on strike following a demand PHOTO: Jon Strack, that they accept a wage-cut.
The Labour councillors want the bonus rate reduced from 92p to 87½p per hour and a reduction in job target times, which would also reduce the bonus.
This has brought to a head the Report grievances of the maintenance and modernisation workers in Sandwell which have been building up over a number of years.
Sandwell Council employs lump labour, and refuses to end this practice even when declaring there is not enough work for the Direct Works Department.
FLYING PICKET
The strikers say they will not return until the lump workers are off the sites, and a strike comm ittee of 60 is acting as a flying picket to ensure that the sites remain fully closed during the dispute.
Sandwell also has the unusual practice of deducting up to 25% of bonus earnings for "administration" and to pay the employer's contribution to superannuațion.
More of the bonus is deducted from the skilled workers to pay any apprentices working under them!
This. practice obviously leads to hostility between apprentices and adults, to apprentices being unwanted, and untrained because of pressure on bonuses.
The hypocrisy of some councillors themselves demanding wage increases at work while asking council workers to accept a wage cut is astonishing.
But at least one councillor on the Public Works Committee has at last been removed from the Labour Group. He is Stan Harris a seif-employed sub-contractor!