Unions are kicking up a fuss again after government departments recommended a 2.8 per cent pay increase for next year but are recommended pay awards really an insult to public sector workers?

Only a few months ago, doctors accepted a 22 per cent backdated pay rise; teachers were less successful, gaining 5.5 per cent. These were to make up for a 35 per cent pay decline since 2010 (for doctors) and a 20 per cent loss (for teachers). Nurses also took a 5.5 per cent raise, after losing a quarter of their earnings – in real terms – since 2010.

So there’s still a whacking big pay gap to be restored. And now it seems the Labour government – whose MPs enjoy real-terms pay parity with what they would have had in 2010 – is turning its back on its less-fortunate public sector colleagues.

It seems perfectly natural, to This Writer, that they would be miffed about it.

According to the BBC,

The British Medical Association (BMA) said there was a “very real risk” of further industrial action if “pay erosion” was not addressed, while Unison’s Helga Pile said the proposal was a “bitter pill”.

The BMA said the recommended pay rise for 2025/26 “indicates a poor grasp of the unresolved issues from two years of industrial action”.

Royal College of Nursing general secretary and chief executive Prof Nicola Ranger described the pay recommendation as “deeply offensive”.

“The government has today told nursing staff they are worth as little as £2 extra a day, less than the price of a coffee,” she said.

“Fair pay must be matched by structural reform. Let’s open direct talks now and avoid further escalation to disputes and ballots.”

Helga Pile told the BBC’s Today programme that the proposals could lead to staff leaving the NHS and will hit morale ahead of an “incredibly tough winter”.

The National Education Union said it fell “well short of the urgent action needed”.

General Secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Teacher pay has been cut by over a fifth in real terms since 2010, hitting teacher living standards and damaging the competitive position of teaching against other graduate professions.”

Given all of the above, and getting back to the question in the headline, are recommended pay awards really an insult to public sector workers?

Damn straight, they are!

And it doesn’t help that ministers are saying the last Tory administration left them in a tricky spot:

The government said departments would have to fund 2025-26 and future pay increases from their own budgets.

Unlike in recent years, there would be no additional money if recommended pay awards exceed what departments can afford, it added.

Officials would have to consider whether additional costs could be covered through other savings or improvements in productivity, the government said.

Rachel Reeves would have known this was coming and should have sorted it out in her budget.

If she had taxed the country’s richest one per cent of people just two per cent of the value of their assets, she would have had more than enough to pay these workers what they are worth and cope with any contingencies.

Now she is being accused of imposing ‘Austerity 2.0’ with her spending review and the cuts she is demanding there – let alone this new attack on the pay of public sector workers.

She and her government could say this is a stop-gap until they have enough to make a more meaningful increase – but they haven’t. And besides, promising to provide something at an unspecified time in the future is the same as promising eternal happiness and sunshine, as far as politicians are concerned – they simply don’t have the ability to see into the future.

And usually the most likely explanation is the first one that comes to mind: They simply didn’t want to pay public sector workers properly. Austerity 2.0? More like Tory 2.0!

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