About West Midlands Employers (WME)
West Midlands Employers is a representative body owned by the 32 Councils in the West Midlands Region and the organisation is registered with the Certification Office for Trade Unions and Employer Organisations. We are owned by our subscribing councils and we are governed by our constitution. We have a representative body comprising of the Chief Executive of each subscribing member council who agrees our business plans, budgets and other constitutional matters.
We also report through an Elected Member Management Board nominated from sub-regional groupings covering Birmingham; Black Country; Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire; Worcestershire; Herefordshire, Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire; and Staffordshire and Stoke with an additional member representing the District Councils.
The chair of the WME Management Board is Cllr Ken Meeson, Cabinet Member for Solihull MBC and the Vice Chair is Cllr Tristan Chatfield, Cabinet Member for Birmingham City Council.
The total public sector workforce WME represents through our employers is circa 116,000
West Midlands Employers Position Statement
Following our AGM we have a mandate from Chief Executives of our membership councils to lobby for changes and further consultation and dialogue on the implementation of the Exit Cap.
WME offers no opinion on behalf of our membership on the concept or ideology of an ‘Exit Cap’; that represents a political policy and as such would generate a significant divergence of views across our Region which is outside the remit of an Employers Organisation.
As large public sector employers across the West Midlands Region there is significant concern about the proposed regulations from our subscribing councils and as such West Midlands Employers recommends that Members of the House of Lords DO NOT SUPPORT the regulations as laid.
WME responded to the Treasury consultation in spring 2019 and there was no further dialogue with Government until the Treasury published their response to this in July 2020; none of the concerns raised by WME had been taken into account or addressed.
To read a copy of the full Public Sector Exit Cap Parliamentary Briefing please click here
