21 March 2011
Unions have questioned the independence of the public sector pay review bodies after they failed to challenge government recommendations on pay rises.
The review bodies covering teachers, NHS workers, prison service staff and armed forces personnel today published their reports. They accepted government recommendations in full, proposing a flat £250 increase for the next two years for staff earning under £21,000 a year.
They made no recommendations for staff earning over £21,000.
The government announced in its June Budget last year that low-paid public sector staff would receive a non-consolidated payment of £250 over the next two years, with pay frozen for staff on more than £21,000.
The pay review bodies took evidence from both government and trade unions, and the Treasury said today’s pay announcements were ‘subject to the statutory consultation process’.
But Unison said the NHS Pay Review Body was ‘hidebound’ by government ‘diktat’. It warned that NHS staff were angry with the government’s ‘interference with the independence’ of the pay review body.
Prison Officers Association general secretary Steve Gillan said his members would be angry because an independent pay review body was intended to compensate for prison officers’ inability to take strike action.
‘The pay review body have not done their job properly,’ he said.
The National Union of Teachers said that by recommending the non-consolidated payment, the School Teachers Pay Review Body had ‘colluded’ with ministers to break a government promise that low-paid public sector workers would escape a pay freeze.
Pay review bodies for more senior public staff, including doctors and dentists, judges, senior civil servants and senior military staff did not operate this year after the government announced its pay freeze.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said he was ‘pleased’ the pay review bodies had all recommended the £250 payment.
‘We have been able to provide a fair increase for the low paid,’ he said.
