Strike action at ‘super council’

Northern Ireland council workers, members of all four staff trade unions, Unite, GMB, NIPSA and SIPTU, went on strike in December in a dispute over how the new Newry, Mourne and Down District “super council” is not honouring the pay and conditions which lower paid-workers enjoyed in the smaller councils before amalgamation.

In a joint statement, the unions said: “The dispute centres on pay differences and disparities in terms and conditions inherited from legacy councils more than five years ago. The point in contention is that for those workers whose pay grades are re-evaluated upwards, they will lose all pay progression accrued and will start at the bottom of the new grades.”