Pay-freeze calls show ‘breathtaking cheek’

13.07.09

Calls for a public-sector pay freeze - and the private-sector envy of public-service pay on which they’re based - is totally misplaced, UNISON head of local government Heather Wakefield writes in the first instalment of a weekly blog.

In fact, says Ms Wakefield, “those who really understand the subject, like research organisation Income Data Services, point out that private-sector pay is far from frozen, with overall increases largely forced down by the fall in City bonus earnings. Two-thirds of companies are increasingly paying between 1% and 4%.

“Public-sector pay restraint has already led to below-inflation rises in recent years and only frontline catering, cleaning and care jobs are paid less in the private sector than in the public.”

And Ms Wakefield has particular scorn for the “breathtaking cheek of the bankers, the CBI and their chums in the Taxpayers’ Alliance” in cheerleading the pay-freeze calls.

“After nonchalantly pocketing a whacking £150bn-£350bn hand-out of public money (depending on who you believe) to rectify their misdeeds, City types now expect the UNISON members and taxpayers who bailed them out to pay again for their unsolicited generosity through public-service cuts and pay freezes,” she notes.