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Britain’s unions are upping the ante in their demands for pay rises following a number of recent offers made to striking doctors and train drivers, as concerns grow about further industrial action in the coming months.
Local government unions are among labour-rights groups gearing up for a fight, after a 2.5 per cent pay offer to council workers and other employees not covered by the national pay review bodies.
Unions representing workers across health and transport have either announced industrial action or are actively balloting their members, while both Unite and Unison are now balloting for strike action over local government pay after talks last month broke down without a deal.
The coming wave of demands is an early test of Labour’s relations with unions who are determined to increase public sector pay to its pre-austerity levels.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned there is precious little room in the public finances for additional spending, after she said there was a more than £20bn black hole left by her predecessor.
She has warned departments they would need to make spending cuts and signalled there would be tax rises in the October budget.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies already forecast in June that the new government would need to find at least an extra £6bn to £7bn to fund pay deals due immediately after the election.
The new administration is wary of criticism that it is in thrall to its union “paymasters” and that it is prioritising higher public sector wages over much-needed investment in public services and infrastructure that will help boost economic growth.
There are also concerns that existing pay offers can heighten demands from other groups.
Train drivers on Friday announced they will stage a series of weekend strikes on the UK’s east coast mainline this autumn, in a non-pay related dispute that comes only days after ministers agreed a 14 per cent pay deal with the union to end two years of rolling national industrial action in England.
The potential walkout would hit the LNER east coast that links London to Edinburgh on weekends between August 30 and November 10.
Bee Boileau, research economist at the IFS, said that “any further offers to GPs, or train drivers, as well as other public sector workers, is going to add further fiscal pressures”.
Boileau noted however that there has been an erosion of public sector pay over the last parliament which was galvanising public sector unions particularly in light of long-standing recruitment issues.
The former Conservative administration brought in a series of measures intended to curb unions’ powers to strike, including increasing the notice period for industrial action and allowing companies to hire temporary workers to undercut striking staff.
Conservatives this week criticised Labour’s decision to offer train drivers a 14 per cent pay rise over three years, arguing it would spur demand from other unions for significant pay rises.
In their talks with unions while in government, Tory ministers had tried to tie worker reforms to higher pay for train drivers.
“After a no-strings-attached offer to throw cash at a Labour-backing union, it should shock nobody that more strikes are on the cards,” said Kieran Mullan, Conservative shadow transport minister.
The RMT, the UK’s largest transport union, said it would hold new talks with the Department for Transport next week, and signalled it would push for a significant pay rise for its members at train companies.
In a letter to RMT members general secretary Mick Lynch said he would “defend jobs, pay and conditions” and expected an offer from the government next week.
Meanwhile, after the government announced a 22 per cent pay offer to junior doctors last month, the British Medical Association announced that GPs were embarking on industrial action.
They were this week offered a 7.4 per cent increase in funding per patient registered at a practice, though the BMA has countered that it would need to be increased to 11 per cent just to return to real-term levels seen in 2018.
The further education sector is also bracing for a tough round of pay negotiations with staff, after the 5.5 per cent pay increase handed to schoolteachers by the government in July was not extended to staff in technical colleges.
David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges that represents the sector’s management, said that total budgets were increasing by just one 1 per cent over the next academic year, leaving scant room for manoeuvre on pay.
While central government does not have any formal role in council pay settlements, one government official said they were “under no illusions” about the scale of the pressures local authorities are facing.
