Transcript Institute of Employment Rights 27th March 2013

Institute of Employment Rights
Workplace issues: learning from the front line
27th March 2013
Regional pay, wages and living standards
Peter Middleman
PCS NW Regional Secretary
The justification
 More responsive to local
labour markets
 Unfair variations in quality
of public services
 Limit number of jobs that
public sector can support
 Crowding out
 Removes competitive
advantage of the regions
The impact
“Save Taxpayers £6.3bn/year!”
Policy Exchange Think Tank , September 2012
“Aggravate geographical inequality”
60 Academics - The Times, Letters, October 2012
“Cost UK economy £9.7bn/year”
New Economics Foundation, November 2012
Possibly include:
Pay cuts of 8%-30% (or longer pay freezes)
Disproportionate impact on women
11,000 job losses in north west
The model
DCA Deal (2007)
Now Ministry of Justice
Cabinet Office proposal (2012)
The practical effect
“Hotspot” Band D 2007/10
National Band D 2007/10
2010 Band D (Junior Manager/Court Clerk) “Rate for the Job”:
£3,091 differential (14.3%)
Source: DCA Pay News 5/07 – 17th April 2007
The latest position
 Summer (2012) press speculation
of a “u-turn”
 Hay Group Report - December 2012
 Autumn statement:
 “... continuing with national pay arrangements”
– George Osborne, 5 December 2012
 Confirmed in 2013 Budget
The danger is over?
Teachers
 Break up of century old national pay bargaining
mechanisms
 Removal of progression to “rate for the job”
 Gove overturned but, “pay differentials will
inevitably emerge between schools, authorities
and regions”
Avis Gilmore, NUT, NW Regional Secretary
Post 2015 – Outright Tory majority?
Britain needs a pay rise
Real terms wages have
fallen 7% since 2008
£50bn/year lost from the
economy
Savings up – “rainy day”
money
Household debt to income
ratio down
Household spending lowest
since 2001
Public sector pay policy
2-year pay freeze
followed by 2-year cap
of 1%
1% cap extended to
2015/16
Pay progression under
threat
Ed Balls: “...jobs have to
come first...”
Wages as share of GDP
Source: TUC Touchstone: Where have all the wages gone?
“Come and see what you could have won”
Political campaign – tide turning?
 14th February press cuttings
o Telegraph - Value of pay packets
has fallen to 2003 levels
o Times – Coalition at fault for rise in
inflation, warns King
o Express - £700 more on bills just to
stand still
o Guardian – Miliband throws down
poll gauntlet
 21st March – Daily Mirror
o FAIL OF THE CENTURY
Industrial campaign
 PCS – 3 days of action 20th
March – 20th June
 NUT/Nasuwt – 27th June
(North West)
 Unison – “We will smash
this pay freeze” – Dave
Prentis, September 2012
 NW TUC – “Living
standards, wages and
collective bargaining”