{"id":14177,"date":"2017-12-18T15:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14177"},"modified":"2017-12-15T15:29:02","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T15:29:02","slug":"just-not-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14177","title":{"rendered":"Just not taking it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Paramedic Debbie Wilkinson (pictured) is facing a heart-breaking decision. After dedicating 26 years of her life to responding to accidents and emergencies in Leeds, she can barely afford to get by and is thinking about leaving the job she loves.<\/p>\n

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Unite member Debbie said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThings are really hard and I literally live hand-to-mouth. Household bills rise with inflation year on year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but my salary doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI simply don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how long I will be able to keep my head above water. This government does not value me as a healthcare professional or indeed value any input I have into saving people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Debbie is not alone. Tens of thousands of public sector workers are increasingly incensed at the Tories after suffering a seven year pay freeze that has left them struggling to get by. Now that anger is on the verge of boiling over, trade unions, including Unite, are threatening coordinated industrial action if public sector pay is not increased to a level people can live on.<\/p>\n

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Since the 1 per cent pay cap was introduced by the coalition government in 2010, paramedics like Debbie have lost \u00c2\u01413,858 a year in real terms. Nurses and dieticians and other specialised NHS staff have lost similar amounts, while low-paid ancillary workers have had \u00c2\u0141897 cut from their annual salary.<\/p>\n

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In 2016, for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, public sector staff earned less than their private counterparts, recent Treasury figures revealed.<\/p>\n

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The data showed a 0.6 per cent disparity between hourly rates and was reinforced by the office for national statistics, which said that public sector wages are on average 5.5 per cent lower than those at similar sized private employers.<\/p>\n

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At the same time as public sector workers suffered massive drops in their incomes the cost of living increased by 12 per cent. TUC polling found that 15 per cent of public sector workers skipped meals this year to make ends meet, while 24 per cent said they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay an unexpected bill of \u00c2\u0141500.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Undervalued\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015b(The pay cap) makes me feel undervalued and I am now struggling on a month to month basis,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite member and Coventry healthcare worker Jason Moore.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grievances were echoed by Unite member Emma Randle, who is a clinical studies officer in Birmingham and hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a pay rise in seven years.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI listened to our health secretary at the Tory party conference. I heard the meaningless and hollow platitudes that trip off the tongue confirming what we already know, that without staff and their dedication there would be no NHS,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut what I see every day is an NHS is on its knees, barely functioning with frustrated clinicians not being able to care for their patients properly, worn out, disillusioned and demoralised.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Tories \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who cheered in June when they voted down a Labour bid to raise salaries for emergency service workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have made attempts to quell the growing disgust at their treatment of the people who provide vital public services.<\/p>\n

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Over the last few months the government announced that prison and police officers will receive a 1.7 per cent and 2 per cent pay rise respectively and signalled that NHS workers are also in line for an as yet undisclosed rise.<\/p>\n

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But the government has not said whether the money will come from fresh funding or if the cash will be diverted from already under strain services. Nor is there much hope that any pay increases will be sufficient to bridge the yawning disparity between public sector incomes and growing living costs.<\/p>\n

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Additionally, the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grudging concessions do not mention the thousands of public sector workers who are not part of the health, police or prison services.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even if every public sector worker was given a 1.7 per cent or 2 per cent pay rise this would still amount to a pay cut. TUC analysis shows a nurse would see a real terms loss in yearly income by 2022 of \u00c2\u0141964 at 1.7 per cent and \u00c2\u0141500 at 2 per cent. A librarian would see a wage fall of \u00c2\u0141584 or \u00c2\u0141303.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer for health Sarah Carpenter said without prompt government action there will be \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwidespread revolt\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOverworked NHS staff are at a tipping point, many are unable to support themselves on their hard-earned wages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories are driving the health service over the brink and if they do not provide a pay rise that allows staff to get on with bringing the NHS back to health there is going to be widespread revolt.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer for local authorities Jim Kennedy said feelings were running just as high in that sector.\u00c2\u00a0 He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLocal Authority workers deserve fair and decent pay and they deserve respect for the services they deliver. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for the government to recognise this and properly fund a pay rise that remedies the 21 per cent cut in pay workers have experienced since 2010.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In response to the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay attacks public sector trade unions, including Unite, are taking action. While the specifics of their pay claims vary, they stand together behind demands to end pay restraint for all public sector workers and for pay rises to be funded with a fresh injection of money \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not from current budgets already under severe strain from years of austerity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a sign of the seriousness of the situation, unions have indicated coordinated industrial action could be on the cards if the government continues to inflict pay misery on the public sector.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Labour has condemned the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdivide and rule\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 tactics of offering some public sector workers wage increases and leaving others out in the cold. Jeremy Corbyn said a Labour government would \u00e2\u20ac\u015bend the public sector pay cap and give all workers the pay rise they deserve and so desperately need\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This feature first appeared in Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members magazine uniteWORKS<\/em>. You can read the latest edition on the Unite website here<\/a>. Or as a Unite member you can receive a print or digital copy by changing your membership records through My Unite or by contacting your local regional office regional membership admin team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paramedic Debbie Wilkinson (pictured) is facing a heart-breaking decision. After dedicating 26 years of her life to responding to accidents and emergencies in Leeds, she can barely afford to get by and is thinking about leaving the job she loves.   Unite member Debbie said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThings are really hard and I literally live hand-to-mouth. Household […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[184],"wps_subtitle":"Public sector workers are at boiling point","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14177"}],"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=14177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14179,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14177\/revisions\/14179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}