It is widely predicted that we will experience a winter of discontent. The cost-of-living crisis dominates the news and winter rationing of energy is now under active consideration by the National Grid. With inflation currently over 10% and some alarming predictions that this could rise to over 18% in winter, it is unsurprising that we are seeing a significant ripple of industrial unrest across UK industries. Workers across sectors are struggling to pay household bills and meet rising food and travel costs. Local government is no exception.

Council worker pay has reduced in real terms with below inflation pay awards for a number of years. Some trade unions have argued that this leaves workers 20% worse off due to the cumulative impact of below inflation pay awards. Coupled with this the National Living Wage increases have placed pressure on the bottom-rungs of local government pay spines, leaving little headroom between those pay rates and the lowest paid.

This is almost unique to local government as a part of the public sector which is not covered under a pay review body, and where pay rates have fallen behind both the private sector and public sector bodies. ONS data suggests that at the end of last year private sector wage growth, including bonuses, picked up by 5.4%, yet the public sector was less than half that at 2.5%. Nevertheless, local government employers are keen to stress that they are not minimum wage employers.

So where does this leave local authority services reliant upon drivers and other transport industry jobs? APSE’s workforce recruitment and retention survey, conducted in the third quarter of 2021-2022 found that local authorities consistently reported driver shortages. Overall driver shortages were particularly problematic with 71.8% of respondents reporting severe or moderate shortages. The situation was much worse in the South of England, where HGV driver shortages rose to 77% compared to the UK wide figure for severe shortages in the HGV category at 30.2%.

These figures are directly linked to pay pressures in the sector, not least due to the exodus of qualified drivers post Brexit. A difficult but less stark recruitment and retention issue also came through in vehicle maintenance where 73.6% of respondents reported severe to moderate shortages; in many cases attributable to an ageing workforce and lack of new recruits coming into the service.

Over 63% of respondents suggest that pay is the biggest barrier to successful recruitment and retention of staff but less than 10% have been able to make a positive intervention in pay rates. In part this is for sound reasons; job evaluation has, by and large, made a positive contribution to raising the pay rates of low paid part-time women workers in local government. However, such systems prevent employers from interventions that cannot be ‘objectively justified’; though arguably the chronic issue emerging on pay, and risk to service delivery, may act as a catalyst to explore options.

In a further APSE survey – specifically on driver pay in refuse services – we found that HGV pay remains relatively low in local government with HGV drivers earning around £24,651 with non-HGV driver earnings at £21,410. The caveat to these figures is huge UK wide variations dependent on the job roles in individual councils. However, the cost of labour in refuse services, as an overall percentage of service costs, excluding waste disposal costs, has remained at a steadfast 45% over a number of years. So, any jump in pay rates will clearly impact on overall service costs in an area that is already a high-cost high-impact service for councils.

The situation remains bleak. A perfect storm of long-term pay suppression, a cost-of-living crisis, and a very real energy emergency, probably means that previous offsets such as relatively good terms and conditions, including pensions, may no longer hold sway in attracting and retaining drivers into the public sector.

As we go to press the local government trade unions are asking their members to consider an employer side offer of £1,925 which should leave everyone with a minimum increase of 4.04%. Will this be enough to tempt some to remain in the sector? A better option would be to invest in a ‘grow your own’ strategy, upskilling existing drivers and new recruits, and investing in training and recruitment for the long-haul.

This article first appeared in the autumn issue of LAPV. To subscribe for free click here.