We need to fight to save pay, jobs and services from increasing austerity
The government has made its pay offers for 2025-26 to NHS, teachers, the civil service, prisons and the armed forces, as have the Labour-dominated local authority employers.
With RPI inflation at 4.5% in April, not only do none of these pay offers go anywhere near to recouping the pay lost over more than a decade of pay freezes and restraint, they are in fact mainly effective pay cuts.
And none are fully funded by the government. Starmer’s Labour only wanted to pay 2.8% and, in honouring the recommendations of pay review bodies, the government has ruled out any extra funding.
Civil servants 3.25%, to be funded ‘within agreed spending settlements’
See page 7 to read about the raging debates in the PCS civil service union over the need for a serious fight on pay and against eye-watering cuts.
Local government 3.2%
All the local government unions are recommending rejection.
Junior doctors 4% plus a lump sum
The British Medical Association (BMA), representing doctors, said the increase is “derisory” and pay is still around a quarter less than it was 16 years ago. A strike ballot of BMA resident doctors (formerly junior doctors) started on 27 May.
Other NHS staff 3.6%
Unite has rejected this offer and is opening a consultative strike ballot. Unison health conference agreed to ballot selected branches for action and use this to “bring the government to the table for talks”.
GMB has put the offer out to consultation without recommendation, but ambulance worker Gareth Bromhall reports: “Senior officers at GMB called us ambulance reps into a meeting recently to get us ballot ready. I don’t think they were prepared for how angry reps are or the appetite for action.”
Teachers 4% – 1% unfunded
National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede told the BBC the union would consult members, but he felt it would be “broadly acceptable” and that strike action was “very unlikely”.
That is not the view of many members! Hastings and Rother NEU is one example of local districts putting out a fighting message to members: “£615 million is not enough. It means a funding shortfall of £1.185 billion. It means more than £55,000 slashed from every school budget. It means the loss of two support staff in every school.”
Sheila Caffrey, NEU Exec member, says
“4% is not enough and it comes with a funding cut. I don’t think there’ll be any school that won’t have to make cuts or redundancies in the next year with this offer. That will also impact the workload of those who still have a job. That is simply unsustainable in an education system already cut to the bone. So the options are: accept and give up, or fight!
“If we had a leadership that clearly showed they were going to fight – with meetings, reps speaking to members, local branches sharing what the real funding cut is – we could build a serious campaign.”
Louise Cuffaro, NEU Exec member, says
“We are facing the annihilation of a functioning state education system. 40 out of 117 schools in Newham have been in ‘restructure’ since Christmas. Unscrupulous heads can cull union activists, older – more expensive – staff, and anyone with a record of sickness or time off for caring responsibilities.
“We cannot fight this this brutal wave of culling and closing schools just by ‘lighting fires’ school by school. Where there are falling rolls, that should mean smaller class sizes and resources for SEND children.”
(Sheila and Louise commented in a personal capacity)
See ‘NEU leadership delays potential action: Keep up the pressure for a serious fight’
