Chief secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke
(Picture: PA Wire)The below-inflation pay rises being offered to public sector workers are “extremely generous”, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury insisted on Wednesday as unions threatened strikes at schools and hospitals.
The Government has offered NHS staff a wage increase of at least 4.5 per cent, teachers at least 5 per cent and police officers £1,900.
Inflation rose to 9.4 per cent in June — a 40-year high.
But Treasury minister Simon Clarke said the pay rises were final and if trade unions still decided to go on strike then so be it.
“We are very conscious here that we are trying to strike the right balance between recognising the vital service all these two million people bring to our country but also balancing that against the risk of fuelling the inflation problem and making it more permanent,” he told Times Radio.
“The pay review bodies have done careful work, we have accepted their recommendations and those have led to a series of what are, by recent standards over the last 20 years, extremely generous settlements.”
TUC Deputy General Secretary Paul Nowak described the public sector pay offer as “extremely disappointing”, adding: “What the Government confirmed yesterday was that thousands of workers have a real-terms pay cut.”
Energy and food costs are continuing to soar and unions have demanded wage increases in line with inflation, which could rise to 11 per cent later in the year, according to the Bank of England.
Ministers have argued that pay restraint is needed to curb rising prices.
But Unions have warned they face seeing mass quitting by some public sector staff, who would leave their jobs than see real-terms pay cuts.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Rising inflation may be pushing family finances to the brink, but the low wage spiral facing so many in Britain isn’t new.
“It’s the result of a decade of Tory mismanagement of our economy meaning living standards and real wages have failed to grow.”
