As the Socialist goes to press, it has been reported that government pay review bodies will recommend that teachers and NHS staff should be given pay rises of about 4% and 3% respectively, up from the 2.8% floated previously by the government. The Labour government has responded that any pay rise must come from the already stretched education and health budgets, ie through more cuts! Socialist Party members in schools and the NHS respond below in a personal capacity:
James Ellis, Hastings National Education Union (NEU)
Teachers desperately need an above-inflation pay award. Our pay has fallen about 20% in real terms since 2010, exacerbating the current recruitment and retention crisis.
However, any unfunded pay award must be rejected outright. An unfunded pay award will mean school cuts and redundancies – heaping even more pressure onto school staff. School cuts drive down working conditions, impact the lowest-paid workers the most, and will do serious damage to the kind of education we can provide our students. If the government doesn’t fund the pay award, regardless of how much we are offered, we must strike.
Louise Cuffaro, NEU executive member
The knock-on effect will be exacerbating the cutting of staff and hours of the lowest paid, which is already happening over falling rolls in areas where student numbers are decreasing. In the national NEU fightback, we must demand funding for pay, linked to democratic control and accountability. We must have a national strategy – school-by-school is not enough. The crisis will mean closures and a tsunami of redundancies. Staff are worn out and leaving, meaning schools rely on temporary staff, and we get unhappy, unsafe staff and children! We should link up with doctors, nurses and other broken privatised public services.
Adrian O’Malley, NEC candidate and Unison Health Service Group Executive, Yorkshire & Humberside
A 3% pay rise for NHS workers is an insult. To have a portion of it paid for by cuts in services and jobs is an outrage.
It should be rejected by health trade unions, and coordinated strike ballots arranged as soon as possible. Health workers will not accept paying for our own pay rise, we’ve got to strike back now!
John Malcolm, NHS Unison branch secretary
The 3% offer comes in response to threats of strike action and union consultation on NHS pay. 3% is hardly an increase for health workers and the campaign should be stepped up for an increase worth taking action for.
Sally Griffiths, NHS Unison rep
I had no idea that 0.2% is so ‘significant’! Perhaps when you are an MP a 0.2% increase in salary is significant, but if you’re on band 2 pay within the NHS you’re teetering between below minimum wage and a smidge above it. Neither 2.8% or even the ‘significant’ 3% will touch the sides of the massive pay erosion that NHS workers have endured. Unison members at my work have been contacting us today and they are angry.
Len Hockey, Barts Health Unite branch secretary
‘Balancing the books’ between patient care and burnt-out healthcare workers is disgraceful and has to be met with coordinated strike action by the health unions to defend our living standards and services.
