Give public sector 5pc rise or we strike, threaten unions

UNIONS have voted for a nationwide campaign of industrial action if the Government fails to agree a 5 per cent pay rise for millions of public sector workers costing £9billion a year.

Public sector union leaders lined up at the Trades Union Congress’s annual conference in Brighton to support a motion pledging a campaign for an inflation-busting pay rise of “at least” 5 per cent in the 2018/19 financial year. At least three unions have started to canvas members over whether to start a campaign of coordinated strike action.

The news comes as the Treasury is expected to tomorrow agree to a rise of more than 1 per cent for tens of thousands of prison and police officers in the 2017/18 financial year.

Ministers are also expected to send out letters to other pay review bodies advising that they are free to recommend above 1 per cent increases in the next financial year 2018/19.

The TUC motion, which was carried unanimously, agreed that unions would “take immediate steps to develop a coordinated strategy of opposition to the pay cap within the public sector”. The motion also committed the unions to campaign for a new Government fund to cover “catch-up pay to address the fall in value of NHS wages following seven years of pay restraint”.

Dave Prentis, the leader of Unison, which represents one million public sector workers, said unions would organise events in every major town and city to campaign for the increase.

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS union, said: “If they don’t scrap the cap and give rises to us all, we will take united coordinated strike action to defeat this Government to put money in our members’ pay packets.”