TODAY is D-Day for Plymouth City Council – and the town hall trade unions – as thousands of staff say whether they are prepared to accept a pay deal, writes Political Reporter Keith Rossiter.

Nearly 2,000 council staff have been told their pay will be cut after a job evaluation exercise that ended in March.

According to sources, some pay cuts are as high as £16,000.

But nearly 3,000 people who were expecting a pay rise as a result of the evaluation are having to wait because of opposition by members of one of the town hall unions.

Members of two unions, Unite and GMB, voted in May to accept the deal.

But Unison, the biggest of the unions, rejected the results of the evaluation.

Unison has been balloting its members again after months of negotiation with the council, and the results are expected late today or on Monday.

Jeremy Guise, communications officer for the Plymouth branch, said yesterday: "Our members rejected it last time by a big majority, 45 per cent in favour and 55 per cent against.

"There has been some consultation between Unison and the council and they have achieved a few things, though they are fairly small.

"One of the things achieved is for the appeals process to rectify any anomalies.

"There was also concern about a gender imbalance at the bottom of the scale."

But he added: "If the members reject the deal again it will leave the trade union movement in the council split."

The council said in May, after the first ballot: "Job evaluation is a national requirement, and we must implement it in one form or another. We believe that it is in the best interests of everyone to move on to the next stage and bring the uncertainty to an end."

The council also warned staff that it might drop its offer to delay pay cuts for three years.

If accepted, the job evaluation will add £8.5million to the council's salary bill.

Council protest which took place on July 16th, 2008