Labour members of Blaenau Gwent council failed to show up to a meeting to discuss the budget.
All 13 members of the opposition group did not attend joint-scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, which was attended by 17 councillors and one co-optee.
The group were criticised for their poor attendance during the meeting open to all of the council's 34 scrutiny committee.
Labour group leader Steve Thomas said there were individual reasons for each councillor not attending, and that it was not a collective decision.
But he also described the meeting as a "a pointless exercise" and criticised the council's decision-making process.
Independent councillor, Malcolm Day, criticised the opposition party over its non-attendance at the meeting.
"This is a very important part of the budget process and it astounds me to think that not one of the Labour party members are here to discuss the budget today," he said.
"We are here to debate it and to do the best for our constituents yet Labour members, for whatever reason, have decided not to turn up."
The special meeting of the joint scrutiny committee was held to consider next year's budget proposals, which include a council tax rise of four per cent.
Proposals are currently out for public consultation, with the budget set to come before a full council meeting for consideration next week.
Councillor Thomas said his party preferred to focus on that meeting, "where final decisions will be taken."
He added: "It is not surprising that Labour members are apathetic towards this meeting as it is basically a rubber stamping exercise for recommendations that were were agreed in scrutiny meetings before the Christmas holidays.
"Those meetings were not open to all members of the council as we requested, only for the members of particular scrutiny committees of which our allocation is just four places out of fifteen.
"In short the joint budget meeting in our view was a pointless exercise."
