We helped score a major victory over pay at the Local Government Conference in June, reports Jon Rogers

Lambeth branch scored a significant victory at Local Government Conference on Sunday and Monday, as our Emergency Composite motion to censure the National Joint Council Committee for having accepted a pay offer which members had voted to reject was carried in a card vote with a majority of over 60,000.

This was a good result, as we faced opposition from the Service Group Executive as well as from a number of right wing branches. We had good support from many other branches however, in particular the Manchester branch (who were part of the composite with us along with Southwark and Tower Hamlets).

We have, as a result, agreed that – notwithstanding that the employers have made a two year pay offer which has been accepted – UNISON will make a pay claim for an increase from April 2017 and the national union will start consulting branches on this claim after Conference.

We have also agreed that the Union must inform our members of the Conference decision to censure the National Joint Council Committee for their disgraceful misconduct of our pay claim this year.

Next month’s Branch Committee, on Tuesday 19 July will receive a full report.

[update] The decisions of the LG conference are now online Local_government_conference_2016