Frozen assets, by Stephen Court

8 Oct 09
STEPHEN COURT | As a teenager, the shadow chancellor changed his name from Gideon Osborne to George Osborne. He may need to change it again to Samson to give him strength to cope with the hostility likely to come his way if indeed he gets to impose a pay freeze for public sector workers earning more than £18,000.

As a teenager, the shadow chancellor changed his name from Gideon Osborne to George Osborne. He may need to change it again to Samson to give him strength to cope with the hostility likely to come his way if indeed he gets to impose a pay freeze for public sector workers earning more than £18,000.

Given that the minimum starting salary for a registered nurse in the NHS is currently £20,710, it looks like Osborne will be alienating a substantial part of the labour force of the UK’s biggest employer. And, says the Royal College of Nursing, a recruitment crisis in the profession may be around the corner

After all the hard-won recent improvements to pay and employment in the NHS under Agenda for Change, it would be discouraging, to say the least, if they were mothballed by the incoming Conservatives. Although the annual NHS pay bill in England was an eye-watering £28bn last year, staff costs are well under half of the sector’s annual outgoings. So it’s quite some political gamble to target NHS pay, rather than other areas of expenditure.

In schools, the main pay scale for teachers currently starts at £21,102, so it will be an uphill climb there for David Cameron if he wants to win hearts and minds.

More generally, the tactic of targeting pay will require the Conservatives to deliver on curbing bonuses among high-earning bankers if it is to have any political integrity. If nurses, teachers and others suffering pay pain see bailed out financiers taking home large Christmas bonuses courtesy of the tax-payer, the reaction could be explosive.

And the comments in today’s Financial Times of shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond – that public sector workers understood the need for pay curbs – will sound misplaced indeed. Perhaps the milder tone of the government, talking instead of realism and restraint in pay, and keeping to current multi-year pay deals for teachers and nurses, with pay freezes only for some senior public servants, may yet see Labour improving in the opinion polls.

Stephen Court is senior research officer at the University and College Union

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