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Rishi Sunak has thrown down the gauntlet to trade unions by announcing pay rises for public sector workers of between 5 and 7 per cent, insisting that no amount of strikes would change his “final” offer.
The prime minister on Thursday accepted in full the recommendations of independent pay review bodies. Education unions immediately endorsed the proposed 6.5 per cent wage rise for teachers in 2023-24 and suspended strike action in England.
But a 6 per cent wage increase for striking junior doctors, plus a one-off payment of £1,250, received short shrift. The British Medical Association claimed that Sunak had missed the chance to put a “credible” deal on the table.
Sunak decided to back the pay review bodies’ proposals in full after being reassured by Jeremy Hunt, chancellor, that they could be funded without resorting to an inflationary burst of extra government borrowing.
Hunt said ministers would have to find “an additional £2bn this year and £3bn next year from department budgets to fund today’s decision”, although few details were given on where the Whitehall savings would come from.
The Treasury said a further £1.4bn would be raised over two years by increasing visa fees for migrant workers and putting up their annual NHS “surcharge” by 66 per cent to £1,035.
Ministers privately admitted that it would have been politically toxic to have refused to accept the pay review bodies’ proposals, but Sunak insisted that unions should “do the right thing, and know when to say ‘Yes’”.
“Today’s offer is final,” Sunak said at Downing Street. “There will be no more talks on pay. No amount of strikes will change this decision.”
Under the review bodies’ recommendations accepted by ministers, police officers will receive a 7 per cent pay increase in 2023-24; teachers 6.5 per cent; senior NHS staff 6 per cent; junior doctors 6 per cent plus a one-off payment; and armed forces personnel 5 per cent plus a one-off payment.
More than 1mn NHS staff, including nurses and ambulance crews, have already been offered a 5 per cent wage increase by the government for 2023-24, along with a one-off payment for last year.
In a joint statement with Sunak, the NEU, NASUWT, NAHT and ASCL teaching unions said they would recommend the government’s pay offer to members. “This deal will allow teachers and school leaders to call off strike action and resume normal relations with government,” they said.
In a direct challenge to the BMA to end the strikes by junior doctors, Sunak said: “How can it be right to continue disruptive industrial action, not least because these strikes lead to tens of thousands of appointments being cancelled — every single day.”
The BMA responded: “This offer is exactly why so many doctors are feeling they have no option but to take industrial action as they have suffered years of below-inflation pay awards.”
The BMA has been demanding a 35 per cent pay increase for junior doctors to reverse what it claims is 15 years of wage erosion.
Sunak has been grappling with the biggest series of public sector strikes in the UK in decades, with NHS workers, teachers and civil servants demanding higher pay amid the cost of living crisis.
Junior doctors who are BMA members began an unprecedented five-day strike on Thursday.
Public sector pay could now start to keep up with rising prices. Consensus Economics, which tracks leading forecasters, expects consumer price inflation to average 7.3 per cent in 2023 and 3.2 per cent in 2024.
Sunak wants to halve inflation to about 5 per cent by the end of this year. It currently stands at 8.7 per cent.
