{"id":27090,"date":"2020-12-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=27090"},"modified":"2021-01-03T20:01:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T20:01:12","slug":"levelling-up-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=27090","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n\n

How do you get the public on board with policies that no one really supports? Easy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c divide and rule, a signature and all-too predictable strategy right out of the Tory government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chancellor Rishi Sunak attempted to use this very strategy in his spending review in November, only for it to spectacularly backfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poll after poll since the pandemic began, throughout 2020, found a public groundswell of support for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098key workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, many of whom work in the public sector. From refuse workers to council workers, health visitors to carers, teaching assistants to porters and many more in between, these workers put their life on the line to keep the country running when everything ground to a halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when Sunak tried to justify his latest public sector pay freeze, the mental gymnastics he employed to make his case was so awkward, so convoluted, that it fell totally flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCoronavirus has deepened the disparity between public and private sector wages,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said in his spending review speech. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn such a difficult context for the private sector\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I cannot justify a significant, across-the-board pay increase for all public sector workers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubling down on the divide and rule strategy, Sunak then said NHS workers would be given a pay rise, but their just as vital colleagues in social care, local government, and other parts of the public sector would not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c unless you were at the very bottom of the pay ladder, in which case you may, at some unclear point in the future, be handed a pay rise of \u00c2\u0141250.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try though he might to make his case for a public sector pay freeze, no one was buying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail tore to shreds the \u00c2\u0141250 sop to the lowest paid public sector workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard that the lowest paid will get an amount of money,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written down \u00c2\u0141250. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m assuming that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a month, rather that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over the entire year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a workforce that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had its pay held down over a period of 10 years. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 10 years of a pay freeze \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is a pay cut, and then minimal increases of about 1 per cent. So, on average, workers in the public sector are \u00c2\u01413,000 worse off than they were at the start of 2010. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t compensation for those lowest paid workers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey also noted that the basis of Sunak\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case for freezing public sector pay made absolutely no sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBy seeking to justify this so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pause\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in pay rises \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a real-terms pay cut \u00e2\u20ac\u201c on the equally divisive basis of a disparity in public and private sector wage increases, he ignores the fact that freezing public sector pay simply suppresses the spending power of all workers, right across the economy,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, public sector workers rightfully reacted with anger over being publicly praised by the government on the one hand, and cruelly betrayed on the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve worked throughout this pandemic, Monday to Friday, handling bins and refuse sacks to then go home to our families,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite rep and refuse worker Simon Cotton told the Mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not immune from the virus, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t avoid us because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re key workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re emptying everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bins, keeping the streets clean, and then going home to our loved ones, putting them at risk too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been on the front line and haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stopped. It just shows you how out of touch this Tory government is.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even for health workers who were assured they would receive a pay rise, uncertainties remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Sunak specifically naming nurses as those who would be getting a pay rise, a big question mark hangs over many public health nurses such as health visitors and school and community nurses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because the planning and commissioning for public health services for young children was transferred from the NHS to local authorities back in 2015. Now, many different employers oversee public health nurses \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some are in the NHS, some are in local authorities, and still others are employed by not-for-profit or private enterprises such as Virgin Care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese public health nurses have been on the very frontline of the virus just like nurses in hospital and other settings and indeed all other public sector workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve risked their lives to ensure our children our safe and healthy at this time of crisis and we urge the government to ensure that they are included in any forthcoming pay rise, no matter who they are employed by.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cartmail went on to emphasise how those public sector workers now being betrayed by the government have given so much of themselves at a time of national emergency \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to turn our backs on them now would be to turn our backs on the glue holding the nation together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis mainly female workforce already juggle work commitments, childcare responsibilities and care for elderly relatives, yet kept vital services running throughout the pandemic, at times due to government failures in PPE provision, risking their own health in the service of others,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is also a blow to local economies and high streets where public sector workers spend a large proportion of their wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agenda is in tatters as a result of the chancellor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s divisive pay announcement which does nothing to restore the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lost\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay in real terms from a decade of austerity.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 By Hajera Blagg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 This feature first appeared in Unite Works Winter 2020\/21. For members to receive a digital copy contact your regional office and ask the membership team to put you on the digimag email subscription list<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you get the public on board with policies that no one really supports? Easy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c divide and rule, a signature and all-too predictable strategy right out of the Tory government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playbook. Chancellor Rishi Sunak attempted to use this very strategy in his spending review in November, only for it to spectacularly backfire. Poll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1295,77,184,582],"wps_subtitle":"Our public sector heroes put their lives on the line for others every day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but clearly this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough to deserve a pay rise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27090"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27090"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27092,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27090\/revisions\/27092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}