Political Opportunism Of The Very Worst Kind

Posted By: Alan Taylor
Date Posted: 12/12/2008

As the Leader of Rochdale Council I would like to state my disbelief at the political opportunism that Simon Danczuk, Colin Lambert and Jim Dobbin MP have decided to take regarding the pay and grading review.

I do not want to get into a political slogging match, as this is not going to help those members of staff that have seen a decrease in their wages. However, I can not let blatant lies go unanswered and I would like to make a few things clear.

The pay and grading review is something that is not unique to Rochdale and is happening to councils across Greater Manchester and up and down our country. The review has been taken out to keep Rochdale within the national government's guidelines on how local government's pay structure should be set.

The Labour Party, alongside both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives in Rochdale, has been involved in the pay & grading review process right from day one. The single-status committee was set up to look into this and its members included Councillors Lil Murphy and Maureen Rowbotham who are both Labour Party representatives.

The outcome of this process was therefore agreed upon by all three parties.
It baffles me that we have a Member of Parliament, Jim Dobbin, trying to point the finger of blame when two of his constituency colleagues, Councillors Lil Murphy and Maureen Rowbotham, were at the heart of the decision that has been taken.