Why we're rallying for fair pay for public servants

 That’s how Bill, a prison officer, describes the government’s decision to increase his pay by 1.7%, rather than the 1% of the last seven years.

He’s right. The government hasn’t given prison staff a pay rise – it’s delivered another real-terms pay cut. By the end of this parliament, prison officers like Bill will be earning £980 less in real terms than they are today. Police officers, who are getting a two per cent increase, will be £450 a year down.

And if ministers give other public sector workers similar pay deals, they’ll lose out too. A two per cent increase for firefighters would leave them £515 worse off in 2022, for a midwife it would be £620.

This isn’t sustainable and it’s not fair.

Already, too many of our public servants are struggling to get by. This year, one in seven have skipped meals to make ends meet, and one in four say they couldn’t pay an unexpected bill of £500.

It’s unacceptable that in modern Britain, nurses are turning to foodbanks, and firefighters are having to take on second jobs to feed their families.

That’s why the TUC has organised a major rally for fair pay, taking place this evening outside parliament.

We can see that the government is in retreat on public sector pay. But instead of taking decisive action, they’ve proposed half-measures.

So we’re demanding better. In next month’s budget, Philip Hammond must give public servants the decent pay rise they’ve earned. At the very least, that means matching the rate of inflation.

What’s more, we won’t accept the government taking a pick’n’mix approach to pay, giving improved deals to some public servants and not others. Frontline paramedics, police officers, firefighters and nurses obviously deserve better. But so do the backroom staff who keep our public services running.

And crucially, we can’t allow the government to raid existing budgets to fund pay increases, which seems to be what they’re planning at the moment.

Our public services are already at breaking point. In fact, all that’s holding them together is the dedication and hard work of staff. More cuts – or “productivity improvements” as Jeremy Hunt likes to call them – should be out of the question.

That means announcing new funding. Anything else would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The government will plead poverty on this issue. They’ll say they recognise the “sacrifice” public sector workers have made, but insist there’s no money for a fair pay rise

That isn’t true. When it comes to providing massive tax giveaways to big business, or buying off the DUP, the government has no trouble finding billions of pounds. This is a debate about political choices – and the government has chosen to target ordinary working people.

But the good news is that we have a real opportunity for change here. Public sector pay has become a key political battleground, and the government is losing the argument. The vast majority of voters now say they support lifting the pay cap, even if that were to mean higher taxes.

So we need to keep pushing, and get all our public servants the fair deal they deserve.