‘Scrap the cap’

Public sector pay was at the top of the agenda at the Labour Party Conference this week (September 25), against a backdrop of public sector workers suffering seven years of real-terms pay cuts.

The government has begun to cave in to sweeping public demand that the pay cap end when earlier this month it announced that prison and police officers would get a pay rise.

But it’s a far cry from a decent pay rise – and has left other public sector workers in limbo.

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail today (September 25) spoke in support of a motion on public sector pay, arguing against this “cherry picking” that pits worker against worker.

“Scrap the cap for all,” she said. “No exceptions.”

Cartmail pointed out that a total of 35 Tory MPs have majorities of less than three thousand, including household names such as Zac Goldsmith, Amber Rudd, Anna Soubry, Justine Greening, and Iain Duncan Smith.

She pledged that on October 17, unions backing the TUC lobby are going to “give these MPs the chance to do the right thing”.

“Shake the magic money tree,” she added.  “To fully fund pay to a level that mends the damage inflicted by seven consecutive years of pay misery.

“After all a little shake can work wonders as the DUP discovered – one billion pounds,” Cartmail went on.

She explained the havoc that the pay cap has played on the provision of public services as well, citing the think tank the IFS, which found that the Tories pay cap plans “would likely  exacerbate ‘the recruitment, retention and motivation problems in the public sector.’”

“They pointed out that recruitment and retention is not just a problem among highly skilled public servants but also among less well paid occupations where working conditions have worsened,” she added.

“Add to the mix the impact of abolishing health professionals bursaries – for example a fall of 23 per cent of applicants to nursing courses.

“Then factor in the utter inability of the PM to offer security to the thousands of non-UK born public servants across all services and what she has created is one unholy mess.”

Cartmail noted that although trade union public sector pay claims vary in detail, they are all united behind demands to scrap they pay cap for all public sector workers and for pay rises to be properly funded with new money – not from existing budgets already choked by austerity.

She paid tribute to the wide array of public sector workers who’ve suffered years of falling living standards – from nurses to ambulance, fire and police workers; from civil servants who “keep what’s left of the benefits system and job centres running”, to cleaners, porters, security guards, teachers, social care workers and many more.

“Tea and sympathy won’t cut it Mrs May,” Cartmail said to rousing applause. “The campaign is political and industrial and we mean to win.”

Watch Gail Cartmail’s speech here