Unions powerless to stop the end of buggins' turn at Birmingham City Council

Not only has the coalition managed to put the pay and grading review to bed - with the potentially embarrassing exception of a legal challenge over blatantly buying off the binmen and street sweepers - it has also ended the age-old local government tradition of awarding pay rises in line with time served, the buggins' turn principle.
From April next year, wage increments for the 40,000 non-schools staff will be based solely on competency and performance.
Hardly unusual in the private sector, but in the world of councils it's tantamount to revolution.
After a lot of huffing and puffing, the unions have been forced to stand by and watch as staff duly completed Performance Development Reviews with their line managers, the results of which will determine whether an increment is to be awarded.
During the previous 20 years of Labour rule, PDRs were in place but largely ignored by employees and not enforced by management. Labour, unsurprisingly, did not have the stomach for a fight with the unions and did nothing to force staff to take part in the PDR process.
Amazingly, until this year, council IT systems were so poor that it was impossible to keep track of PDRs anyway - rendering the system next to useless.
Chief executive Stephen Hughes said he believed about 30 per cent of the workforce completed PDRs before 2008, but he could not be certain even that the figure was accurate. Now, with the threat of disciplinary action for non-compliance, 90 per cent of staff have undergone PDRs and the results are being checked and moderated before the 2010 increments are decided.
The long-term results of this are obvious enough. The council wage bill will not rise so steeply, since not everyone will be judged worthy of a pay rise.
Mr Hughes explains that the new system will reward the high achievers and hard workers, and if they do to pull their socks up, the under-performers will "have to go".
The unions do not like this one little bit, and Unison held a demonstration before the start of the September full council meeting.
But they are shouting against the wind. Changes in employment contracts since 2004 have been remarkable, and there is no going back.