By David Meilton
06 July 2009
Unions have attacked Audit Commission leader Steve Bundred’s call for a public sector pay freeze.
Bundred, the commission’s chief executive, advocated the freeze in an article in the Observer newspaper on July 5.
He wrote: ‘At a time when inflation is likely to be between 2% and 3%, a pain-free way of cutting public spending would be to freeze public sector pay, or at least impose severe pay restraint. This is especially true if real wages in the private sector are still falling.’
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the government should be cracking down on rich tax evaders and City bonuses. ‘Freezing public sector pay during a recession is not the way to steer people through it. Let's be clear, the recession was caused by bankers and speculators and the lack of regulation. Low-paid public sector workers, who will be helping communities through the recession, shouldn't be expected to pay.’
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, reacted angrily. ‘Now is not the time to cut the pay of public sector workers,’ he said. ‘At at time when we need people to collect all the revenue we can, we have already lost thousands of jobs.’
Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers said: ‘The Audit Commission is simply joining the long list of those who use the recession as an excuse to promulgate an anti-public services agenda, to privatise public services, and to attack public service workers’ jobs, pay and pensions.
‘At a time of recession it is public services which will sustain people and rebuild the economy, none more so than the state education service. Raiding of public service pay and pensions is a fundamentally flawed strategy for rebuilding the economy.’
In his article, Bundred said a £50bn package of spending cuts and tax rises would be needed to reduce the deficit in the public finances incurred during the recession.
Chancellor Alistair Darling, in an interview with Sky News on July 5, also indicated that a pay squeeze might be necessary. ‘Public sector pay obviously has got to reflect prevailing conditions, and in particular inflation has come way down. Of course, we have got to be fair with regard to people who work in the private sector, many of whom have seen their pay conditions somewhere near freeze.’
He said pay policy would be decided ‘over the next few weeks’. He added: ‘It has got to be fair to people who work for the public sector just as we have to be fair to the private sector.’
06 July 2009
Unions have attacked Audit Commission leader Steve Bundred’s call for a public sector pay freeze.
Bundred, the commission’s chief executive, advocated the freeze in an article in the Observer newspaper on July 5.
He wrote: ‘At a time when inflation is likely to be between 2% and 3%, a pain-free way of cutting public spending would be to freeze public sector pay, or at least impose severe pay restraint. This is especially true if real wages in the private sector are still falling.’
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the government should be cracking down on rich tax evaders and City bonuses. ‘Freezing public sector pay during a recession is not the way to steer people through it. Let's be clear, the recession was caused by bankers and speculators and the lack of regulation. Low-paid public sector workers, who will be helping communities through the recession, shouldn't be expected to pay.’
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, reacted angrily. ‘Now is not the time to cut the pay of public sector workers,’ he said. ‘At at time when we need people to collect all the revenue we can, we have already lost thousands of jobs.’
Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers said: ‘The Audit Commission is simply joining the long list of those who use the recession as an excuse to promulgate an anti-public services agenda, to privatise public services, and to attack public service workers’ jobs, pay and pensions.
‘At a time of recession it is public services which will sustain people and rebuild the economy, none more so than the state education service. Raiding of public service pay and pensions is a fundamentally flawed strategy for rebuilding the economy.’
In his article, Bundred said a £50bn package of spending cuts and tax rises would be needed to reduce the deficit in the public finances incurred during the recession.
Chancellor Alistair Darling, in an interview with Sky News on July 5, also indicated that a pay squeeze might be necessary. ‘Public sector pay obviously has got to reflect prevailing conditions, and in particular inflation has come way down. Of course, we have got to be fair with regard to people who work in the private sector, many of whom have seen their pay conditions somewhere near freeze.’
He said pay policy would be decided ‘over the next few weeks’. He added: ‘It has got to be fair to people who work for the public sector just as we have to be fair to the private sector.’
