Finance Minister George Osborne faces a bruising new clash with public sector workers after capping their pay rises at 1% from next year. On the eve of the biggest strike by state employees for decades the Chancellor said he accepted the ceiling was “tough” for workers but insisted it was fair for the taxpayer. It follows a two-year pay freeze. Osborne asked union leaders to call off the 30 November strike. Dave Prentis, general secretary of public sector union Unison, reacted: “It's time to drop the public sector pensions tax and take steps to put money back into people's pockets. This will boost growth and get Britain hiring - as it is, the private sector is in no position to dig the country out of trouble. Not only is austerity hitting growth - the way it is being applied means unfairness is growing.” TUC general secretary Brendan Barber responded, “Of course there were some welcome moves in the statement as the Chancellor tries to reinvent infrastructure spending, youth employment and regional assistance programmes. But the catch is that they are being paid for by freezing tax credits, holding back public sector pay and increasing public sector job losses to 710,000 by 2017. Those with the broadest backs who caused the crash have escaped once again. ”
English: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24015693-public-workers-hit-by-pay-rise ... http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-20352-f0.cfm
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. or the communications officer of the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.