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Regional daily wins campaign on council pay

A regional newspaper has forced a major U-turn from its local council over pay changes which would have left thousands of staff facing massive salary cuts.

The Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph launched a campaign calling on the county council to rethink its plans to implement a single pay agreement – urging it to phase in the new salary structure to protect some of the authority’s lowest paid workers from an immediate blow to their earnings.

Editor Jeremy Clifford held meetings with the council’s leader and chief executive pointing out the hardships workers would face and calling on the council to have more compassion.

The Evening Telegraph also personalised the campaign by asking council leader Jim Harker to have a heart and, through the negotiation process with the unions and staff, to consider other alternatives – with the paper winning a phased introduction of the pay changes just days before Christmas.

As a result, the council has to find £4.1m in funds to support the phased programme.

Said Jeremy: “We are delighted to have been able to highlight what we saw was the injustice of the original plan and, through an aggressive, personalised and sustained campaign through the pages of the Evening Telegraph and outside negotiation and reasoning with the council, we have convinced them to soften the impact of the changes.

“We never argued against the single pay agreement but against what we saw was the heartless way it was going to be implemented, affecting the likes of classroom assistants and the lowest paid workers, some facing losing up to a third of their salaries.

“During the campaign we featured countless workers’ stories about the work they do and how the impact of the salary cut would affect them, some having to reconsider their jobs, others facing having to sell their homes etc.

“The U-turn won’t protect them from that, but it at least gives them more time to adjust to their new circumstances.

“The scale of the victory is big. The decision by the council to reassess its plans will cost them £4.1m. It proves once again the role the media can have in their communities fighting on behalf of its readers.”

4 comments

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  • January 6, 2011 at 9:57 am
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    How does Mr. Clifford think that costing the council an additional 4.1 million pounds, when they are already having to find savings of 136 million pounds over the next few years, will benefit anybody?

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  • January 6, 2011 at 4:57 pm
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    I must say, it’s unusual for a local paper to campaign for their council to spend MORE….although going into bat to protect the wages of the lower paid is entirely honourable. Maybe the Telegraph could now get readers to suggest where the extra £4.1m will come from?

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  • February 22, 2011 at 11:08 am
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    ext year’s story: Northamptonshire County Council makes thousands bankrupt with huge tax rises to pay for wage budget deficit

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