THE Tory-led council is accused of ‘bragging’ to other authorities about driving down the workforce’s pay.

The row erupted over a presentation by Euan Murdoch-Hollies, Cheshire West and Chester’s then head of human resources, to a Local Government Association seminar in March.

By that stage an industrial dispute was in full swing after staff such as care workers stopped receiving extra pay for working weekends and bank holidays saving £4m a year – another strike took place last month.

Publicly the authority argues the changes are a housekeeping exercise to harmonise contracts between the four legacy authorities following local government reorganisation.

But in the presentation the HR boss, who described the council’s ‘ambitious and commercial focus’, highlighted how the union response was ‘hindered’ because the move only affected a quarter of the workforce and revealed ‘glad chose not to take whole workforce on’.

Labour opposition leader Justin Madders argued council leaders should sit down with the unions to agree a compromise.

He added: “Instead they spend their time bragging to other local authorities about how they have ‘taken on the workforce and won’. The council should not be boasting. They should be sitting down with those staff who are losing £100 to £200 a month from their pay as a result of these changes.”

Cllr Madders said there would be ‘a huge price’ to pay for the collapse in staff morale especially because staff covering for strikers were on double time which he described as ‘hypocritical and provocative’.

Tory staffing committee chairman Cllr Alan McKie said: “The suggestion that the authority is ‘bragging’ about this issue is ridiculous. This was a presentation which we were asked to make by the Local Government Association.

“It is also worth noting that Labour members of the committee agreed to seven of 10 recommended changes to those terms and conditions.”