Effect Of Pay Restrictions On Public Sector Workers

EDM number 699 in 2015-16, proposed by David Anderson on 16/11/2015.
Categorised under the topic of Pay.

That this House believes that the one per cent four-year public sector pay cap announced by the Chancellor in the Summer Budget will inflict deep damage to public services and unfairly shut out public sector workers from the benefits of growth across the economy; notes that public sector workers have already endured a two-year pay freeze, followed by a three-year one per cent pay cap that has cut thousands of pounds from the real value of wages, followed by this new four-year one per cent pay cap which will cut almost £2,400 from the value of the average public sector wage by 2019 as RPI inflation returns to an annual rate of over three per cent; further notes that this contrasts sharply with economic growth running at 2.5 per cent, average earnings in the private sector predicted to reach close to four per cent within the next two years, the remuneration of FTSE 100 chief executives growing at 21 per cent and corporate profits growing at almost five per cent; notes that this trend is already apparent in a recent Smith Institute survey of HR directors and managers which found that 63 per cent of health trusts are unsure that they have enough staff to meet demand, particularly among highly trained, specialist and experienced staff, while 88 per cent of local authorities state that the continuation of the pay squeeze will impact on their ability to recruit and retain staff; and further believes that the huge gap between public and private sector wage growth is set to create a recruitment and retention crisis that will undermine the standard of care provided by the UK's health service, the quality of education for children in UK schools and care for the vulnerable in UK communities.

This motion has been signed by a total of 15 MPs.