Council workers call off strike

The local UNISON branch and councillors agreed to new terms and conditions for employees meaning a five-day walkout planned for later this month has been called off.

The two sides had been in talks for several months, and continued to meet during the Christmas period following a UNISON ballot which was 53 per cent to 47 per cent in favour of strike action.

Kirklees Council chief executive Adrian Lythgo said: “We have continued to hold meaningful discussions with UNISON at a local and regional level and a result of the new agreement is that the trade unions will contribute to developing a new performance management system that will be used from April 1. Importantly, there will be no compulsory redundancies from Kirklees Council between now and April 1.

“It has also been agreed that, for the same period, sickness will not be part of the redundancy criteria as we review our services. We believe that this new solution is one that is fair to our staff, fair to council tax payers and fair to service users.”

Kirklees UNISON branch secretary Paul Holmes added: “This is good news all round. None of us wanted to go on strike, but we have been consistent from the beginning that we wanted to see no compulsory redundancies.

“We also saw performance as the key factor in service reviews, not sickness absence, and we will now work with the council management to ensure any future reviews are fair to our members.”