Pay rise or pay ruse?

So prime minister David Cameron has finally got round to calling on bosses to give staff a pay rise.

 
In a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce this morning (February 10) Cameron called on Britain’s business leaders to let workers feel the benefits of his so-called recovery. But the reality is that he is almost at the end of his term as prime minister and all he has to show for it is the rich getting even richer and the rest of us paying the price.

 
Just last week parliament debated the explosion in poverty across the country.

 
That debate outlined the reality of ConDem Britain. A rise in food bank use from 3,000 people in 2005 to 40,000 in 2010 has accelerated under the ConDem coalition. The Trussell Trust says almost a million people were given three days’ emergency food in 2013/14.

 
Then there’s the rise in child poverty. Parliament heard there are 500,000 more children living in relative poverty under the coalition, and even more damning 800,000 more in absolute poverty.

 
And what hope is there for our youth? The debate also outlined the axing of the education maintenance allowance and the future jobs fund. Tuition fees have tripled and young workers have seen a 10 per cent drop in pay.

 
And the world of work is more insecure. As the government heralds the jump in employment it ignores the rise in people employed on zero hours contracts which has jumped to 1.4 million, that’s on top of the rise in underemployment and the fact that only 1 in 40 net new jobs created was a full time job. Yes, just 1 in 40.

 
Worse off

 
And that brings us to pay. Unite has long been arguing that Britain needs a pay rise, and the facts show that the average worker is ÂŁ2,500 worse off a year since Cameron became PM.

 
Under Cameron’s watch nurses, teachers, soldiers, council workers, firefighters, police, civil servants and many more have been denied a proper pay rise with cuts of up to 15 per cent. In the private sector pay has also seen a protracted squeeze.

 
As Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said, “David Cameron fools nobody with this empty attempt to curry favour with working people, the very group he has hit with his mindless austerity hammer.”

 
The prime minister has had 1,736 days to call for a pay rise, but his own record is one of pay cuts and false promises. Perhaps Cameron’s conscience was pricked, or perhaps he’s looking at the polls and realising that his days in Number 10 are numbered…