Dinner ladies could have their wages deducted

The local authority ran into funding difficulties after being forced to issue back pay to their ancillary workers.

The money was paid back because staff were working a 39 hour week instead of 37 hours, agreed in 1999.

The local authority has written to trade union officials outlining that if they do not accept the changes the council will go to the executive board advising that the current contracts should be terminated.

In effect, Dave Cliff from the GMB union said they would be sacked and re-employed on new contracts.

In an attempt to save money, Wrexham Council have thought about rising the price of school meals by a few pence and getting rid of retainer pay.

They're the lowest paid employees in the local authority Dave Cliff GMB

"Unlike teachers who are paid all year round, catering and cleaning staff get retainer pay during school holidays which is half pay," said GMB union representative Dave Cliff.

"If they now get rid of the retainer pay there is nothing to stop them getting other jobs and at the start of the term the schools won't know if they're coming back."

Dinner staff and cleaners currently earn around �5.32 an hour but if the local authority stops retainer pay they could lose between �500 and �700 a year.

In May, Mr Cliff told the local authority that the GMB could not agree with the withdrawal of retainer pay.

Strike

"They're the lowest paid employees in the local authority," said Mr Cliff.

"If the elected members say yes then the GMB union would have to ballot its members on industrial action."

A spokesman from Wrexham Council said a final decision has not yet been reached.

"We wrote to the three unions involved in this matter at the beginning of June and we are still awaiting responses from two of them.," he said.

"If we do not receive responses we will have to report the matter to our executive board for their consideration but it is premature to speculate on any likely decision at this moment in time."