By Richard Johnstone | 9 July 2014
Public sector workers are more than £2,000 worse off since the coalition government came to power in 2010 as a result of pay restrictions, the Trades Union Congress said today.
Publishing an analysis of public sector pay ahead of strike action being taken by local government workers and teachers tomorrow, the TUC said the government’s pay restraint, planned to last until 2018, had left workers across the public sector angry and upset.
Chancellor George Osborne implemented a two-year public sector pay freeze as part of his deficit reduction plan in 2011/12 and 2012/13. Since then, annual increases have been limited to 1%, while council workers had an extra year of no increase in 2010/11.
Overall, this has left the average worker £2,245 worse off in real terms, based on the retail prices index measure of inflation, the TUC said.
Council workers in Unison, Unite and GMB unions are taking action strike action tomorrow following the Local Government Association’s offer of a 1% pay increase for most workers, which could include as many as two million workers.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady highlighted there are over 450,000 workers in local government earning less than the living wage.
Although the economy may be picking up, there was no financial let up in sight for town hall employees and other public sector workers, she added.
‘In local government – and right across the public sector – workers believe that ministers neither care about nor understand the pressures on their already stretched household budgets.
‘It won’t have been an easy decision for hard-pressed public sector workers to vote to lose a day’s pay this week, nor will they take delight in any disruption caused to the public. But if the government continues to hold down pay, our public services will struggle to hold onto and recruit skilled and dedicated staff, [and] when that happens we all pay the price.’
The TUC has also looked at how the pay of specific jobs in local government has been squeezed over the last four years.
A home help worker who has been at the top of her pay scale for four years was earning £13,189 at the beginning of 2010. She is now earning £13,621 – an increase of just £432 since 2010. Had her pay increased in line with inflation, she would now be earning £15,820 – which means that she’s lost out on £2,199 in real terms.
Under the same analysis, a refuse collector on the top of his pay scale has missed out on £2,950 in real terms. He was earning £16,440 in 2010 and is now on £16,770.
