12:27pm Tuesday 23rd February 2010
By John Geoghegan
TAXPAYERS are to foot a £200,000 bill to pay teachers claiming money they are owed from Southend Council as a result of an equal pay scheme.
In 2008, a national scheme called single status was brought in to standardise the pay for council and school staff according to their level of skills.
The introduction of the agreement has cost the council £1.9million in back pay to bring workers’ earnings in line with the private sector. This financial year, the council had earmarked £300,000 for the costs of single status, but a further £200,000 is needed on top of that.
This is because back-dated pay claims continue to be made by teachers who have left the council’s employment. Any teacher who has left their job since November 2005 is entitled to claim back-dated pay as part of their policy. Roger Hadley, Tory councillor responsible for schools, said: “The people who left the council and then applied for back pay, which they’re entitled to do, exceeded what we thought.
“That was the additional £200,000.
“Anyone who left between 2005 and 2009 was entitled to back pay.
“We have to meet the guidelines the Government set down.
“Before single status, we had separate pay scales.”
Last year, some schools raised concerns about possibly cutting staff to balance the books because schools faced higher wage bills for non-teaching staff.
But Mr Hadley said that has all been resolved now after the council provided about £2million to meet the single status costs.
He said: “It did cause implications for school budgets, but we’ve had no questions from any schools.
“We’ve been working with them to support them and there’s been no comeback.”
The report, the budget forecast for the remainder of this financial year, also stated the costs of agency staff for schools and children’s social care have caused an over-spend on the budget of about £350,000.
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