NL Leisure warns staff of pay freeze

NL Leisure boss Blane Dodds, right, has warned of pay freeze.

North Lanarkshire Leisure staff have been told they won’t be getting a pay rise next year.

The bad news was broken in a letter from Blane Dodds, chief executive of the organisation which runs sports and leisure facilities on behalf of North Lanarkshire Council.

Mr Dodds said he wants a one-year pay freeze because of a proposed “significant reduction” in the management fee NL Leisure gets from the council.

He wrote: “This would mean the one per cent annual pay award due in April would not be implemented.”

Mr Dodds stressed that the 1.5 per cent rise only recently agreed for this year is not affected and that money will be in employees’ November pay.

However, he said funding cuts facing the council will have a “major impact” on NL Leisure.

Mr Dodds said a “significant” number of job losses have taken place within NL Leisure and the pay freeze is part of an attempt to avoid further redundancies.

More on this story in the Motherwell Times, Bellshill Speaker, Cumbernauld News and Kilsyth Chronicle on Wednesday.