NORTHUMBERLAND JOINT TRADE UNIONS

REMOVAL OF BONUS UPDATE

Dear Colleagues                                                                                                         3 August 2009

As you will no doubt be aware we have met with Northumberland County Council on 2 occasions since they wrote to you advising that on the 31 December 2009 they intend to remove all bonuses being paid currently to approximately 140 current bonus earners. If no agreement can be reached on this matter by 28 September they intend to do this by serving 3 months notice to dismiss all bonus earners and reemploy them on the same conditions, except bonus. This means that there is no break in service and you would continue to work for NCC on a lower rate of pay. The Joint Trades Unions have replied by:

• a) Demanding that the letters that were issued at the end of June be removed immediately as we regard that action as a threat, which we are not prepared to negotiate under, stating that we will fully explore any legal redress that we can use to support our members affected by this decision to terminate their employment.

• b) We believe that the issue of bonus should be negotiated through the Single Status discussions with a view to reaching an early agreement, as it is clearly linked to job evaluation. NCC should put enough time and resources into resolving issues around bonus, like the vast majority of other Local Authorities have done around the region, who have successfully reached Single Status Agreements through negotiation.

• c) We have said today that if NCC refuse to rescind the letters issued to staff we will not enter into any further talks about this matter with them and that we will lodge a formal dispute on that alone. We will be organising mass meetings of our members on this issue and following those meetings we will decide on the next course of action.

NCC have said that they have to protect the Council Tax payers from further cost on this matter, and that they are acting upon their legal advice, but have agreed to consider our request over the next few days. Once we have had a response we will arrange to meet with you to discuss this matter further and explain the next steps that are available to us.

We would ask for your continued patience on this matter and hope that a sensible outcome can be reached through negotiation, if NCC refuse we will have no alternative than to take action on this matter and we will meet with you in due course, no later than next week, week commencing 10 August 09.

Tony Martin               Mark Wilson               Graham Eastwood

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