Fórsa and the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) resumed talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) earlier this week (10th December), to further engage on the implementation of a job evaluation scheme in the local authority sector. 

Both parties had agreed to meet to progress the scoping exercise on options for a job evaluation arrangement in the sector in line with the terms of the current public service agreement. 

Following a constructive engagement, both Fórsa and the LGMA agreed to once again reconvene on Friday 24th January 2025 for a “productive engagement”, to discuss both parties’ written assessments and views of identified job evaluation schemes. 

Head of the union’s Local Government and Local Services and the Municipal Employees’ Divisions Richy Carrothers welcomed the engagement and advancement to date but expressed frustration at the pace of progress. 

“Local authority workers up and down the country have been carrying out additional duties for years, but without any recognition for the extra work and the time has long passed for the implementation of a job evaluation scheme in the sector. The union has a reasonable expectation that significant progress is made in quarter one of 2025 and we have made this clear. The current delay in making any real progress is not sustainable or acceptable. For our part, we will follow through the commitments given at the WRC on the scoping process and we look forward to employers engaging in a collaborative and productive way in advance of the next conciliation hearing in January. We now need to see the process quicken and intensify” he said. 

Close to 10,000 jobs were lost from the sector following the financial crisis in 2008, and services were only maintained because local authority workers countrywide took on additional responsibilities above their pay grades. 

Following successful industrial action and intensive engagement in the WRC, Fórsa and the LGMA had agreed to pause negotiations to establish a job evaluation scheme for the sector last September, pending the national pay talks. The Public Service Agreement 2024-2026, which came into effect earlier this year, made provisions for re-engagement to progress this matter further, and in May, Fórsa wrote to the WRC triggering this clause.

“Job evaluation is available to workers in every local authority in Britain and across the 11 councils in the North; it is good for workers and employers. Our members are still dealing with the fallout from austerity well over a decade later. What is currently in place is neither fair nor sustainable. Our members are resolute, they want and deserve job evaluation and the LGMA can be in no doubt of our commitment and drive to deliver this,” he said. 

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