Unions threaten to strike after government backtracks on pay
UNIONS in the public sector are threatening strike action after the government chose to ignore the recommendations of the independent review body for pay, awarding a one per cent increase to some but not all workers in the NHS.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced yesterday that 550,000 NHS workers will get a one per cent increase, while another 615,000 staff will not. Instead, the latter group will be entitled to an incremental salary increase, usually between two and three per cent, which is written into their contracts.
Unions have hit back at the decision, claiming it represents a real-terms pay cut for many staff. Inflation is currently around two per cent. Both Unite and the GMB have announced they will ballot members over the pay decision, which Unite said adds up to a “divide and rule” policy.
“The government has shown complete contempt for the NHS, contempt for staff and contempt for patients and will pay the price at the ballot box. Even a straight one per cent increase would be nowhere near enough to meet the massive cost-of-living increases that NHS staff have had to cope with since 2010. Staff are on average 10 per cent worse off than when the coalition came to power,” Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison said.
David Cameron said the government is making sure that staff across the public sector get at least a one per cent increase this year, but stressed the need for pay restraint.
“It is right to make difficult decisions about public-sector pay. It is good that it is increasing and not frozen but it is right to take those difficult decisions because it means we can keep more people employed,” he said yesterday, during a trip to Israel.
As well as salary changes, the government also announced that from this year some departments will need to pay more into staff pension pots than before. This will amount to £1bn in total across departments.