The following has been supplied by the PCS HQ:
Britain has become one of the most unequal societies in the developed world.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that top earners are soaring away from the rest of the country at the expense of average earners and the lowest paid. This is no surprise to PCS members who have been in the grip of a government imposed pay freeze for over a year now.
A two-year pay freeze for public sector staff earning £21,000 or more – with provision for rises of £250 at lower levels – was one of the early measures taken by the coalition government. In the commercial sector wages are also tumbling in real terms, rising by only 2.3% in October 2011, according to Incomes Data Services.
Severe hardship
The chancellor’s autumn statement revealed even further hardship lies ahead for PCS members and their families.
Osborne announced that public sector pay would rise by just 1% for the two years after the pay freeze is over. The steep upward trend in inflation, the pay freeze and other cuts such as to tax credits, mean that many members are suffering severe financial hardship.
In February 2011 PCS and Unison published a joint survey of members showing the impact of the cuts and pay freeze on family life. It revealed that a third of respondents had debts of more than £10,000. As money coming in has grown tighter and cost of living risen, 71% had cut spending on food, 33% on vital healthcare such as dentists and prescriptions and 22% on children’s footwear and clothes. Meanwhile the pay of FTSE 100 chief executives has risen by 49% in the last financial year.
The recent High Pay Commission report criticised what it called “stratospheric” pay increases for executives. It found some had soared by more than 4,000% in the last 30 years, resulting in wealth flow upwards to the top 0.1% of people in Britain, while average wages have increased just three-fold from £6,474 in 1980 to £25,900 today. The conclusion was that this massive inequality is “deeply corrosive to our economy”.
The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said George Osborne’s economic plans would mean a sharp drop in household income, especially for those already on low wages. This is all underpinned by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasting 400,000 public sector job losses rising to more than 700,000.
Absence of democracy
The current economic system is characterised by an absence of democracy, participation, transparency and accountability.
Employees and their trade unions are frozen out of national economic influence and decision-making. The captains of industry, commerce and finance run their businesses on quasi-totalitarian lines. All decision-making is concentrated in the hands of a tiny, privileged cabal of shareholders, directors and managers. They determine how the company and wider economy operates. Employees are disenfranchised.
PCS is fighting back and demanding an alternative based on economic and social justice. The national action on 30 November was in defence of jobs, pensions, and pay. The union is currently mapping the situation regarding pay across the PCS bargaining units to ascertain where they are in the pay freeze and which are entitled to pay progression. The union has arranged meetings with Treasury officials to establish the detail around the proposed 1% salary increase and clarify the issue of progression.
The union continues to legally challenge employers in areas of appraisals, performance-related pay and bonus allocation.
PCS is also widening alliances with groups outside the trade union movement who are campaigning against the public sector pay freeze, poverty and wealth inequality.
