{"id":13523,"date":"2017-09-25T12:11:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T11:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13523"},"modified":"2017-09-25T15:33:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T14:33:13","slug":"scrap-the-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13523","title":{"rendered":"‘Scrap the cap’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a far cry from a decent pay rise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and has left other public sector workers in limbo.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail today (September 25) spoke in support of a motion on public sector pay, arguing against this \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcherry picking\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that pits worker against worker.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bScrap the cap for all,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo exceptions.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She pledged that on October 17, unions backing the TUC lobby are going to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bgive these MPs the chance to do the right thing\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bShake the magic money tree,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo fully fund pay to a level that mends the damage inflicted by seven consecutive years of pay misery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAfter all a little shake can work wonders as the DUP discovered – one billion pounds,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail went on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwould likely\u00c2\u00a0 exacerbate \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the recruitment, retention and motivation problems in the public sector.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAdd to the mix the impact of abolishing health professionals bursaries – for example a fall of 23 per cent of applicants to nursing courses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThen 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not from existing budgets already choked by austerity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She paid tribute to the wide array of public sector workers who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve suffered years of falling living standards \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from nurses to ambulance, fire and police workers; from civil servants who \u00e2\u20ac\u015bkeep what’s left of the benefits system and job centres running\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, to cleaners, porters, security guards, teachers, social care workers and many more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTea and sympathy won’t cut it Mrs May,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail said to rousing applause. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe campaign is political and industrial and we mean to win.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watch Gail Cartmail’s speech here <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[806,184,561,44],"wps_subtitle":"Public sector pay cap must end, says Unite AGS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13528,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13523\/revisions\/13528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}