Government should follow NHS announcement with pay rises for all key workers - TUC

• Key worker pay is “acid test for Prime Minister’s promise to ‘build back fairer’”, says TUC

Responding to reports today (Wednesday) that the government will accept the pay review body recommendation of a three per cent pay-rise for NHS staff, despite ministers previously submitting a proposal for a rise of just one per cent, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

"NHS staff and their unions, together with massive public support, have forced the government to abandon their plan to give our NHS workers a real-terms pay cut.

“But it is still less than the four per cent rise NHS staff will get in Scotland. Outsourced NHS staff such as many cleaners and porters are excluded. And ministers are still freezing the pay of other key workers who kept us going through the pandemic – like care workers, refuse collectors and public health staff.

“Key worker pay is the acid test for the prime minister’s promise to ‘build back fairer’. Every key worker deserves a decent standard of living for their family. But too often their hard work does not pay. We owe them better.”

Child poverty in key worker families

Research published by the TUC last week found that just over a million children in key worker families are living below the poverty line.

The research used the government’s definition of key workers, which includes staff working in the NHS, public health and social care.

Support needed for key worker families

The TUC is calling on the government to guarantee decent living standards for key worker families by:

• Raising the national minimum wage to £10 per hour immediately.
• Ending the freeze on public service workers’ pay and giving all public service workers a decent pay rise.
• Funding the public sector so that all outsourced workers are paid at least the real Living Wage and get parity with directly employed staff.
• Cancelling the £20 cut to Universal Credit, which is set to hit low-income families in October, and set out plans to increase child benefit above inflation each year across the parliament.