02 May 2008
The government has failed to give a good explanation for the current squeeze on public sector pay, an independent pay expert told a conference of trade unionists this week.
Alastair Hatchett, head of pay and HR services at analysts Incomes Data Services, said public sector pay restraint first began to bite in 2005.
This, coupled with the government's new enthusiasm for three-year pay deals, meant some groups of public servants could be facing five years with pay rises of just 2.5% a year.
'That's a very big ask from government and no one in government has articulated why,' he told a joint IDS-Trades Union Congress conference on pay bargaining on April 29.
'An explanation for the demand [for public sector pay limits] seems to be lacking.'
Hatchett added that pay bargaining in the public sector was changing, with questions beginning to be asked about the benefits conferred by pay review bodies.
The three-year pay proposal currently being offered to nurses and other health care staff accepts NHS Pay Review Body recommendations for a 2.75% pay rise for 2008/09.
However, the 2.4% and 2.25% being offered for the two subsequent years have been arrived at without any review body input.
'There is a degree to which [review bodies'] independence is coming under question… One of the issues for unions is to ask what review body status means,' he said.
Frances O'Grady, TUC deputy general secretary, told the conference that public sector pay remained at the top of the TUC's agenda.
She said unions had yet to be convinced that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's interest in three-year pay deals would benefit public sector workers.
'The danger is that public sector pay will fall further behind and that is something unions will fight tooth and nail to avoid,' O'Grady said.
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