Our Pay Up Now campaign has hit a crucial milestone. After months of campaigning in workplaces across the region and nationally our UNISON petition to get parliament to debate the issue of public sector pay was a huge success with over 140,000 people signing it. The debate is happening on Monday 4 December 2017 at 4.30 pm.
The debate is the opportunity for MPs to voice their opposition to the Government’s continued commitment to public sector pay restraint.
Since 2010 the Government has either frozen or capped changes to public sector pay scales. This has meant that the cost of living has increased much faster than public sector pay. This has had a huge impact on public sector workers, both on the financial wellbeing of staff but also on the ability of the service to recruit new staff into the workforce.
For NHS staff, between 2010 and 2016 over £4.3 billion has been cut from their salaries in real terms in England alone. That’s over £2,000 for a cleaner and nearly £5,000 for a nurse.
In Local Government Between 2009 and 2017 staff have experienced a real terms loss in pay of some 21%, which for someone who earns around £20,000 will have lost over £4,000.
All MPs can attend the debate. It is really important to ask your MP to be at the debate to show their support to public sector workers and to highlight the impact of the Government’s policies and the need to give a decent pay rise.
Email your MP and ask them to attend the debate
We need to remind MPs that hundreds and thousands are financially suffering to make ends meet. Your MP is obliged to respond to you, so it’s very useful to make them confirm whether they can attend or not – and why.
Clare Williams