About 3,000 Leicester City Council staff face pay cut

Thousands of staff at Leicester City Council have been told their salaries are to be cut.

The authority has written to about 12,000 workers asking them to sign new contracts after their jobs and pay were re-assessed.

Bosses said the move was to ensure the authority complied with equal pay legislation.

About 3,000 staff will see a drop in their pay - with the average loss about £2,500 per annum, said the council.

A spokesman for the authority added: "At the moment there are just under 80 people who are looking at a loss of more than £7,000 a year, representing less than 0.7% of staff affected by these changes.

Appeals lodged

"However, a number of staff have lodged appeals against the evaluation of their posts and until those appeals are heard it will not be possible to give final figures.

"It should also be noted that around half of our staff will see their basic pay rise and a quarter will stay as they are."

The council said if anyone objected then the authority would have to consider dismissing and re-engaging them on new terms.

Alistair Reid, strategic director at Leicester City Council, said: "We have to ensure that all the salaries we pay to our staff are seen to be fair and equitable.

"It's very difficult, however, the offer that we've negotiated with trades unions that sits on the table at the moment is that we will actually protect salaries for a period of two years, from July this year up until the end of June 2012.

"So no staff will be experiencing a pay cut for almost two years. And that's something that we very much hope people will think about when they consider whether to accept the offer that's on the table."