Public sector workers to face extra budget pain

date: 20 March 2013

embargo: For immediate release

Millions of families will face another year of severely squeezed incomes following the budget announcement today (Wednesday) that public service pay is to be capped for another year and incremental pay progression is set to be scrapped.

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'The Chancellor is either oblivious to the tough time that millions of public sector workers and their families are having or he is deliberately setting out to punish them.

'Public sector workers have seen their pay frozen as the cost of living soars and thousands now find themselves earning less than the living wage.

'Family budgets are at breaking point and millions of nurses, teachers, fire-fighters, council workers and civil servants will have been hoping the Chancellor might ease their pain today, not add significantly to it.

'The government also seems set on ditching long-established, easy-to-understand pay progression in the public sector based on increased experience and skills over time.

'Reports of a further move towards a messy system of individual performance-related pay will damage morale - already at a low ebb - undermine team working, and do nothing to improve services. It would also mean much time and resources wasted on complex local pay negotiations, and it would make inequalities worse.'

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