Cynical swindle may lead to general strike

THERESA May’s duplicitous attempt to sell public-sector workers a dummy by “abolishing” the pay cap unravelled no sooner than the small print of her superficially magnanimous idea was subject to scrutiny.

A similar ruse by the Prime Minister, promising a pay rise in excess of the 1% cap for police and prison officers, was quickly ridiculed by their respective unions. The government was effectively lying about a headline “2% pay rise” with its shameful omission that this will actually translate into a miserly 1% consolidated pay rise and a 1% bonus. Regardless of the hypothetical figure, a pay rise would inevitably be funded by already strained budgets.

In plainer terms, the public-sector pay cap won’t officially exist, but when staffing reductions are ordered to cover additional costs – well, you can draw your own inescapable conclusions on that conundrum. It is, as the Morning Star noted in a fantastic editorial recently, a clear demonstration of a government “obdurately committed to their capitalist austerity agenda, that equates to lower living standards across the board”.

They clearly don’t mince their words – and neither does POA general secretary Steve Gillan, who highlighted that the prison service has lost £900m and chronic understaffing is already a serious issue.

Mr Gillan, and others, have also noted that such an increase would still be outpaced by inflation, thus representing a real-terms cut in wages.

The retail price index tends to be the most accurate, if not absolutely infallible, indicator of inflation rates, and suggests inflation would outstrip a much-quoted 1.7% figure by a conspicuous margin.

It is a cynical swindle, devoid of any substance or meaningful sympathy for fellow public servants struggling to stay afloat under Tory rule. Should the trade union movement make preparations to organise a general strike? Absolutely. And I will happily stand with those workers who take part. Daniel Pitt Mountain Ash