IMPLEMENTING a new pay scheme for council workers has cost a ‘totally unreasonable’ eight times the original budget, amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Weymouth and Portland and West Dorset councils conducted a job evaluation to ensure they have the same pay and grading scheme under the shared services partnership.

Councillors approved the implementation, which was predicted to cost £100,000 – but they have now been told the cost has increased eight-fold, to £800,000.

Conservative councillor Ian Bruce says the budget was hiked because trade unions felt ‘emboldened’ to ask for more from the Labour-run management committee.

It is understood that the majority of overspend has gone to back-dating pay for employees whose salaries have gone up in the new pay grading scheme.

This was disapproved by the Conservative group because it went ‘against the original agreement with our employees and was simply unaffordable in current circumstances’.

But he says the ‘balls are all up in the air’ as to what will happen now the shared services partnership has decided to bring in North Dorset District Council as well.

Cllr Bruce added: “It was done quickly, all confidentially and if you try to raise it in a meeting nobody wants to talk about it.

“Clearly when you have got two workforces coming together it’s important that fair pay is implemented, and I think anybody would be foolish to think that can be done at no cost. £100,000-£200,000 is reasonable – but £800,000?”

The council has denied a new review will have to take place once North Dorset District Council comes aboard – but jobs and pay will need to be ‘harmonised’.

Matt Prosser, chief executive for West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, said: “A total of £800,000 was spent on implementing a new pay scheme for the shared service partnership between West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, and this was agreed by councillors following discussions with unions.

“The partnership had the difficult task of bringing together two sets of pay and grading schemes to create a single scheme which was fair and met equal pay principles.

“Because we could not afford to increase the overall pay bill, some staff salaries went up and some went down following the pay review.

“The implementation budget is a once-off cost and has been applied to provide a period of adjustment for staff who have suffered a reduction in their contractual pay following the pay review.

“It also provides back pay from April 1, 2014, and a recognition payment for those staff whose jobs have been evaluated at a higher grade, in many cases because they have taken on bigger jobs but have not so far been remunerated for this.

“The overall annual pay bill will remain the same.

“There will not be a wholesale pay review exercise because North Dorset District Council uses the same pay scheme but, of course, in bringing services gradually together jobs and pay will need to be reviewed and harmonised, service by service.”

In an email seen by the Echo, services manager of corporate services Melanie Earnshaw says: "Implementation costs are the once off costs of back pay and pay protection required in order to secure collective agreement on a change to contractual pay and grading. 

"The need for a once off budget to implement a single pay scheme for the joint workforce was identified in the original business case approved by the councils before entering into the partnership back in 2010.

"The amount estimated and set aside at that time was £100,000. 

"This amount was increased to £500,000 as part of the budget setting process for 2014/15. During the course of negotiations with unions on the new pay scheme management was asked by unions to take a request to members to increase the implementation budget to £800,000 in order to achieve a pay scheme, back pay and pay protection which unions considered they could recommend to their members and had a chance of being supported in a private vote."