A solicitor representing some of the Nottingham City Council workers who were wrongly denied incremental pay rises says the Labour-run authority is yet to send its settlement offers years after the case was settled in court. Dozens of people who worked for the council have spoken out in frustration over the wait for their settlements after pay rises were wrongly frozen in 2011 in a bid to save the authority cash.
At the time the case was taken to the Court of Appeal which decided the council had been wrong to freeze incremental pay rises. The council had argued the freeze had saved the equivalent of around 1,000 full-time jobs and, had it not been introduced, "job losses would have been unavoidable". But a group of 600 workers, alongside four union leaders, said the authority's email linking settlements of back payments to redundancies had been "intimidating" and took the case further.
The council decided to take its argument further and appeal the decision, taking the case to the Supreme Court in 2018. It ended up paying hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees but the court ultimately refused the authority's application and the case was sent to an employment tribunal to agree settlements.
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The council said last year parties involved had agreed the timescales were 'unrealistic' largely due to Covid pandemic and the time to pay out was extended. However it is now understood numerous offers are yet to even be received.
Mike Keenan, a solicitor at Thompsons, told Nottinghamshire Live: “The council has told us to expect its first batch of without prejudice offers shortly. We will take instructions on those offers as soon as we receive them.”
One staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "I'm owed a five-figure sum, well over £10,000. We still don't know if NCC plan to settle in full, or will try to buy us off on the cheap.
"The council give out the outward impression that they are dealing with the claims and that lots have been settled. This is part of the frustration because we know that the calculations are not coming through."
And another man, who also asked not to be named, added: "I still don't understand why the council are so slow in paying out. Blaming Covid is no longer acceptable."
The city council said the latest update was that more than half had been 'processed'. Responding to the concerns, a city council spokesman added: “The process for sending out payment calculations was started many months ago and payments have already been made to a number of successful claimants. The claimants should all be liaising with their solicitors for updates in relation to their particular claims.”
