Many Christmas shoppers will choose to park for free, knowing there will be little or no parking enforcement during strike days, says GMB
GMB, the union for local government workers, can announce that dozens of parking wardens across Wiltshire will be taking further strike action to protest the council’s decision to remove a contractual unsocial hours payment.
The strike action will take place across the county for one week from Saturday 10 December until Saturday 17 December, taking in two of the busiest Christmas shopping Saturdays.
The union members have previously taken two days of strike action in May, before the plans were shelved by council bosses, only to have the proposals put forward once again in August.
The proposals, if successfully pushed through, would result in traffic wardens losing around £2000 per year, with social workers losing up to 20 per cent of their pay, or £3500 annually.
Keith Roberts, GMB Regional Organiser, said:
“GMB members already took two days of strike action, because they cannot afford a pay cut.
“In the current cost of living crisis, actually taking money away from staff is crazy, and even the suggestion of a future pay cut has caused a crisis of retention and recruitment.
“The way forward is clear: Wiltshire council just needs to drop the stupid idea of cutting their key worker pay.”
