THE job evaluation scheme, which left employees of the county council £5,000 out of pocket has been scrapped after public pressure.

This week angry protesters armed themselves with banners and campaigned against their treatment by North Yorkshire County Council bosses during the implementation of the single status agreement.

More than 30 council employees from Craven who faced wage cuts and changes to working conditions, joined 400 others with 300 symbolic black balloons in lobbying county councillors at their personnel sub committee meeting on Wednesday.

They returned to their jobs victorious when the council bowed to the employees' outrage and suspended the job evaluation scheme which had graded all the jobs and withdrew the proposals for a new pay structure.

The conflict had risen following the way the national agreement to harmonise conditions of work had been implemented.

It meant that 25 per cent of employees would have lost money and all would have been affected in terms of changes to weekend entitlements and overtime. The council said it faced a £2.2 million implementation bill and wanted to recoup it from its workers.

Lynne Jewitt, a clerical assistant in highways, would have been earning the same salary as she was 12 years ago under the new pay structure.

She said: "Everybody is really pleased. However, we are very cautious because we still think they are going to sell us short. I think the council has been surprised at the level of response they got."

In a statement, the leader of the council David Ashton said: "The initial results of the process have raised many concerns among the staff and clients of NYCC, particularly in relation to the pay of the most junior staff and the potential effect on front line services."

The authority is now planning to suspend the job evaluation scheme, withdraw the proposals for a new pay structure based on the initial job evaluation exercise, and test out alternative approaches.

There is also a proposal to include Unison and non-union representatives in the process of examining alternative approaches.

Unison representative Bruce Brockett, who works in social services, said this was just a small step but it was good to see the authority did listen.

He added that there was still some concern as a job evaluation scheme did have to be chosen.

"I am pleased with the numbers that turned out to the demonstration. The way they conducted themselves and communicated directly with the councillors was good. Now it is on to the next phase," said Mr Brockett.

County councillor Beth Graham said any job evaluation scheme chosen now to implement single status would be useless if the process had to be self financing.

She added that the abandoned scheme had shown itself to be nonsense, and she would like to speak to anyone who had been interviewed using the scheme to help get a clearer picture of the "farcical" procedure. If anyone can help they should contact her on 01729 823588.

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