Union leaders in Northamptonshire have called a strike ballot over plans which could see council workers forced to take unpaid holiday.
Officials at Northamptonshire County Council have been in talks with unions about changes to workers’ terms and conditions for more than a year.
The changes include sick pay being scrapped for the first three days of illness and pay rises being frozen. Staff could also be asked to take up to four days unpaid holiday a year.
Steve Bennett, from the county branch of Unison, said a strike ballot would be held in response to the changes.
He said: “Staff are busting a gut to keep services running, but the council rewards them with worse terms. I urge the council to return to talks and withdraw from imposing new terms.
“There are no guarantees these contractual changes will prevent further job cuts and staff are right to reject them.”
But a council spokeswoman argued 92 per cent of staff had ‘consented to the changes’, which were implemented at the beginning of this month.
She said: “There are no easy answers to the financial challenges we’re facing, but by saving £4 million a year on our employment costs, we’ll avoid further redundancies and direct pay cuts as well as helping safeguard budgets for front-line services.
“We’ve been negotiating for more than a year with the unions, but unfortunately there’s no avoiding the need to reduce our employment costs.”
She added that the council hoped union members would not vote to strike.
The Chron first revealed last year that union bosses at Northamptonshire County Council had opposed major changes to staff terms and conditions. The unions warned strikes were a certainty if the changes were made. But the council said the changes, which came into force this month, were needed to save £4 million and prevent any further redundancies at County Hall. The council has said despite lengthy talks, the unions have not yet come up with alternative ways to save the money.