Muted response on public sector pay

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement last month that up to 900,000 public sector workers are to get an above-inflation pay rise received a muted response from unions.

They pointed out that the money for the pay increases of up to 3.1% is to come from existing departmental budgets — and the increases also fail to cover vast swathes of public sector workers such as nurses, hospital porters, school support staff and care workers.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the UNISON public services union, said that “pay rises must be funded or already-stretched public services will feel an even greater pinch”. He called on the government to stop holding down the pay of the rest of the NHS staff and local authority workers and not treat them in such an underhand way.

The GMB general union said the pay announcement covers just 20% of the 4.4 million public sector workers in England. John Phillips, the union’s acting general secretary, said: “Low-paid support staff will not see their wages rise, and NHS workers remain stuck on a pay settlement that has meant real-terms cuts for long-serving staff.”

The Unite general union said that, yet again, council workers seemed to be “the forgotten army of public service”, currently being offered a pay rise that amounts to £1.83 a day.

The union is holding a consultative ballot of its 100,000 council workers which is due to close on 14 August.

https://www.gmb.org.uk/news/government-public-sector-pay-rise-does-nothing-vast-majority

https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2020/07/time-give-fair-pay-rise-public-service-workers

https://unitelive.org/millions-of-public-sector-workers-denied-pay-rise