Public sector pay rises in line with soaring inflation are “unaffordable”, Transport Secretary Mark Harper has said, raising the chances of a winter of strikes going ahead. The Cabinet minister said today there “simply isn’t the money” to meet the demands of workers preparing to take industrial action, but hinted at progress in talks over rail strikes.
Mr Harper indicated a change in the mandate for negotiations, after holding “positive” talks with Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch. Nurses are set to stage their first-ever UK-wide strike action next month, as they join transport and postal workers on the picket lines in disputes over pay and conditions.
Mr Harper told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “Inflation matching or inflation-busting pay rises are unaffordable. I think we want to try and give all the workers in the public sector who work very hard decent pay rises, but they can’t be inflation-busting pay rises.
