Council staff reject final offer on pensions

The government’s hopes of resolving the bitter dispute over public-sector pensions received a fresh blow last night when leaders of tens of thousands of council workers rejected a final offer.

Unite’s national local authority committee turned down the proposed deal, saying “genuine discussions” should be held without “arbitrary” deadlines.

The move follows a similar decision last week by the union’s health executive and a decision by the British Medical Association to survey 130,000 doctors and medical students on the offer, raising the prospect of their first industrial action ballot for more than 30 years. The two biggest UK teaching unions also refused to sign up to the deal as they pressed for more talks.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “There now needs to be genuine discussions without arbitrary deadlines. Our members need clarity before we can move forward.”

Leaders of the biggest public-sector union, Unison, will meet today to consider the final offer, while unions will hold talks at the TUC later this week to decide their next move.

UK local government minister Bob Neill said: “The decision by Unite is disappointing, but Unite only have 30,000 members in the Local Government Pension Scheme, out of a total active membership of 1.6 million.

“Our proposals represent a good deal for public sector workers and taxpayers. We need to put local government pensions on a sustainable and fair footing.”