Gordon Brown delivered his first speech to the TUC conference today as Prime Minister, and taking advantage of the generosity shown to "new" leaders, decided to give a further kick in the teeth to public sector workers by justifying that their pay rises were "part of the fight against inflation".
What Gordon Brown never accepts is that 2.5% for prison officers or teachers over 18 months equates to an annual pay rise of 1.9%. This is lower than inflation, meaning that, in effect, these people take a pay cut "in real terms".
Under Gordon Brown the public sector pay review bodies have become puppets of the government, announcing the pay award that they are told to award, and ignoring all the evidence in front of them. In the case of teachers too, Gordon Brown broke a promise when it was made clear that if inflation reached 3% at any point, teachers pay would be subject to a further revision. When inflation did hit 3%, he ignored this pledge.
Had the TUC been given today's speech by David Cameron, they would have been up in arms about it, but because he is a Labour Prime Minister doing what the Tories used to do, he gets away with it.
5 comments:
And, fancy him playing the race card "more British jobs for British people"...
Its not a pay cut "in real terms". Its a deferred increase but ultimately a fully consolidated increase.
And as for teachers pay being subject to further revision if inflation goes above 3% - get real! Those of us in the private sector are lucky to get any annual increase let alone a revision if inflation goes high. And no final salary pensions for us.
As my partner say, teachers have it easy compared to those of us working full-time in the private sector (and he's a teacher).
I'm sorry, but relative wages in the public sector are much, much lower than in the private sector. my wife, a planning officer for a council, could earn much more in the private sector but she believes in the principle of the public sector. If she and her colleages all went private the shortage that already exists in many councils for plannign officers would be even worse.
As for the stuff about teachers pay, shouldn't a deal be a deal ? If it is promsied, it should be delivered. As for your partner, perhaps he does not work in a inner city school with over one third of the children been registered with Special Educational needs. I worked in the private sector for seven years, and teaching is a far harder job and and my pay rises in the private sector were all 4.5% or more.
Oh, and get your partner to do the maths. 2.5% over 18 months equates to 1.9% per annum. That IS a pay cuts in real terms.
good to see a liberal backing workers, kudos nich!
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