Coventry councillors have revealed that they are planning a major u-turn over the pay row with thousands of its workers.

They are not going to impose the Single Status conditions on 11,000 workers and have removed one of the major constraints on the negotiations with trade unions.

Some workers feared that they might lose thousands of pounds off their salary under the new conditions.

Single Status is aimed at removing some of the inequalities in pay for council workers, particularly those on part time contracts who were losing out.

But previously the council insisted that the overall amount of money spent on wages must remain the same.

This approach, called cost neutrality, meant that some people on higher pay were bound to lose out. In a poll among trade union members, 95 per cent of those who voted opted to reject the scheme.

But the new council deputy leader, Cllr John Mutton, said that new negotiations would not be “fettered” by cost neutrality.

He said:

“This does not mean capitulation or giving the unions an open chequebook.

“We must be realistic, and net cost of single status will require resources.

“If this is not achieved in a controlled manner, understood and supported by our unions, there could be cuts in jobs and services, something neither the city council nor the trades unions would wish to see.

“We must be able to substantiate and justify our action to our sternest critics, the people of Coventry.

”We must re-establish the confidence and trust of the workforce and find a way to forge a genuine and durable sense of partnership between the city council, the managers, employees and trades unions.”

The previous decision over single status will be rescinded at the next council meeting on 24 August, and council officers have been told to find new options.

David Cairns of the TGWU said the news was a major development in the saga, which has been running for two years.

He said staff morale had sunk since it became apparent that they could be losing pay.

Mr Cairns said:

“People were coming up to me in the street and saying that they weren’t happy with working for the council, and these were people who had spent their whole career with the council and thought they were a good employer.

“This will allow us to have some proper discussions and deal with the issues that should have been dealt with two years ago.

“They need to make sure that they’ve got enough money to make sure they can support the proposal, but from the very outset we told them that this would cost them.”