Employment Rights Bill

With 1.4 million employees in the sector and more than half a million teachers, firefighters and other local authority related personnel, local government can be said to be the largest workforce in the country. Reforms to employment rights are therefore a key area of interest for councils and we look forward to working across parliament on the New Deal for Working People.

The LGA manages the collective bargaining arrangements for around two million employees in local government, fire, education and related sectors. Elected councillors and trade unions work together to reach collective agreements on key employment issues such as pay, terms and conditions.

We recognise the government’s Plan to Make Work Pay with its intention to create a new partnership between business, trade unions and working people. The Employment Rights Bill is a major development, and we look forward to working with the Department for Business and Trade to ensure the voices of councils, schools, fire authorities and other employers in the sector are also heard.

There are many areas on which the LGA and our member councils can provide insight and assistance, for example:

• Reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB), which will cover pay, terms and conditions, training and career progression for support staff in local authority and academy schools – the LGA was involved in the previous SSSNB and currently manage the collective bargaining apparatus for both support and teaching staff in schools.
• The establishment of an Adult Social Care Negotiating Body (ASCNB), which in common with the SSSNB will cover the pay and terms and conditions of employment of adult social care staff – local authorities directly employ 100,000 staff in this sector and commission many more, securing parity of esteem for the sector’s workforce with colleagues in the NHS is a key objective and we have significant experience of collective bargaining in large and fragmented sectors.
• Both new negotiating bodies will interact with the wider local government workforce which will remain part of a national collective bargaining framework and the LGA seeks to work with the government to ensure risks and unnecessary costs are limited.
• Other Employment Reforms – through our role as convenors of employers in local government and related sectors we operate in the broadest range of occupations and working arrangements that will be key to ensuring reforms succeed for all staff delivering local public services. Equalities factors will be key in ensuring the reforms succeed, and as part of that consideration will need to be given to employers’ ability to change terms and conditions to address equalities issues.
• For the reforms in the Bill to be effective, it is vital that councils are properly resourced. LGA analysis shows that due to inflation and wage pressures alongside cost and demand pressures, English councils face a £2.3 billion funding gap in 2025/26 rising to £3.9 billion in 2026/27. This is a £6.2 billion shortfall across the two years. Costs flowing from the proposals in this Bill will exacerbate this issue if not matched by increased funding to councils. 

Archie Ratcliffe, 
Public Affairs, [email protected]