A THIRD of staff at West Somerset Council could face taking a pay cut or lose their jobs as the authority battles to bring its pay scales into line with national standards.

Employees could be told in the coming weeks whether their pay is likely to stay the same, go up or be cut following a convoluted job evaluation process which should have been completed two years ago.

Public sector workers' union Unison is refusing to recommend the scheme to its members and is particularly aggrieved by the high percentage of women workers who are likely to see their wages reduced.

Under the proposals drawn up by specialist human resources consultant Martin Griffin, 46 per cent of staff could see their pay increase, 33 per cent would take a cut and 22 per cent would see no change.

Some 39 per cent of the council's female staff face a pay cut but only 22 per cent of the men.

If the scheme is approved, employees will be given the choice of accepting their revised pay deals or refusing to sign and face the prospect of dismissal and an offer of re-engagement under the new terms.

Those who do accept and are in line to receive higher pay will have their wages backdated on the higher scale to April 2007, while those who face a pay cut will have their existing higher rate protected until the end of July 2010.

The scheme is likely to cost the financially troubled authority almost £430,000 over the next three years and Conservative councillors are already claiming services will suffer as a direct result.

Tory group leader Cllr Tim Taylor warned Monday's cabinet meeting it was inevitable as money already allocated to other services would have to be found in the budget to pay for the new pay scales.

He said: "One understands and sympathises with the situation but the reality is that the money is coming out of the budget to pay for this and that money could have been spent on other things in West Somerset.

"There will be some decline in services as a result of this."

Council chairman Cllr Eddie May said many staff members were concerned their jobs had not been correctly evaluated under the scheme and feared it could have dire consequences for the authority.

He said: "This is going to cause friction and upset and we may lose someone who's really good because they're in the group whose wages will be going down."

Executive director Adrian Dyer said he agreed with Cllr May, but said the council had no option as it was legally obliged to adopt a fair pay scheme to ensure equal pay for all its staff.

"Nationally it is agreed that a third will go up, a third will go down and a third will stay the same. You can't win," Mr Dyer said.

Mr Griffin said he was confident the council had as good a scheme as it could have and said unions were reluctant to give their support to such a process as there had been cases nationally of disgruntled workers taking legal action against their own unions.

He said: "Sitting on our hands and saying it's not our fault is not an option.

"Negotiations with Unison have continued. They understand this could lead to redundancies and Unison believes they are too high, particularly with regard to the percentage of female employees.

"We are in a position to move forward . . . the outcomes may not be palatable to everybody."

Lead member for internal resources Cllr Doug Ross said he would have preferred to have had the support of Unison but could understand why unions were cautious in the current climate of litigation.

He said: "We cannot just go on and on. We have a legal obligation to introduce a scheme and we have a very strong moral obligation as well.

"It is essential we have a scheme that has been worked out carefully to establish equal pay. I think the job evaluation group has done the best it can.

"I am satisfied we have the best scheme we can."

Cabinet members gave their support to the revised pay scales, although the final decision on the scheme's future will be made at the authority's full council meeting next Wednesday.

If approved, staff will be told of their new employment terms and conditions and pay before the end of July and will have a matter of weeks to either accept or decline following a consultation period.

If they refuse, further consultation will follow and those still not willing to sign will be given their notice between October and December.

The new pay scheme would then be introduced in January next year and dismissed staff given the option of re-employment, but only under the new terms.

Mr Griffin added: "Discussion has taken place with Unison representatives and legal advisors on the options available for West Somerset Council to introduce the job evaluation and pay and grading scheme.

"The outcome of these discussions was to identify individual consultation with the potential of dismissal and re-engagement as the only potential option available."