Downing Street has set itself during a collision with unions on the remuneration of the public sector, insisting that there will be “no additional funding” for an increase greater than 2.8% recommended by independent revision organizations.
An increase of approximately 3% was recommended for NHS staff, according to a health official. Number 10 did not denote that wage examination organizations also recommended increases for teachers by almost 4%.
This means that if the government accepts remuneration recommendations, as it did last year, certain increases will have to be funded by public spending reductions and efficiency savings.
“There will be no additional funding for remuneration if the recommendations go beyond what the departments can afford,” Sir Keir Starmer Prime Minister said on Monday.
Union leaders want to increases in wages entirely funded above inflation and do not want cuts elsewhere, creating a new political problem for Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who already has trouble balanced books.
Salary recommendations for almost half a million teachers and 1.4 million NHS workers were reported for the first time by Times on Monday.
The two recommendations are superior to what the ministers had wished when they exposed their salary expectations before Christmas.
Last December, the education and health services declared in evidence of independent review organizations that everything that is beyond a 2.8% increase in the remuneration of teachers, NHS and doctors staff for 2025-20 years would be unaffordable.
Shortly after winning the general elections in July, the Labor Party gave generous salary increases from 5% to 6% for 2024-25 to public sector workers in order to settle a series of long-standing disputes.
The ministers argued that these prices were sufficient to provide a level of remuneration from the public sector with the private sector.
Since then, the growth of wages in the British private sector has proven to be stronger than expected, the Budget Office of the Budget now predicting wages and wages through the economy will increase by 5.2% in 2025. Inflation should also bounce back in the short term, with around 3.7 for the coming months.
Stephen Kinnock, Minister of Care, confirmed that the government had received recommendations from wages examination organizations and would grant them “very attentive consideration”.
“I would … urge our colleagues in the union movement to make a constructive commitment with us and recognize the reality of the financial situation,” he told Sky News.
But some unions have indicated that they could take industrial measures if payment offers are not their expectations.
Daniel Kebede, secretary general of the Union of NEU teachers, called on the government to immediately publish the recommendations for remuneration and to clarify how they would be funded.
The price of remuneration was to be greater than inflation and fully funded, he said, adding: “No one wants to take strike measures, but, of course, as a union, we are ready to act industrially if we need it.”
The Nasuwt teaching union has also threatened with strikes unless the wages of remuneration for teachers are entirely funded by the government, rather than school budgets.
A health official said that any gap between the government's offer and the expectations of the sector would be a problem: “It is probably the toughest budget for years.”
They added that it was unlikely that the government will approve anything more than 3 percent “given how tight the budget is, but here again, they will not want to face the prospect of the reboot of strikes”.
Junior doctors have also reported that they could return to industrial action if this year's offer does not respond to their hopes of long -term “salary catering”.
Any industrial action could buzz the government's objective to ensure that 92% of NHS patients in England are not waiting for more than 18 weeks after the reference to start non -urgent hospital treatment by the end of this Parliament.
Jo Galbraith-Marten, director of legal relations, employment and members of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “This level of reward will not do much to overthrow things. Nursing is crucial to deliver government reforms, but the profession is in crisis, with fewer people who join and the figures that have left bankruptcy.
“We need direct negotiations with the government, not a body examination of wages from a bygone era. Any remuneration price must be fully funded, withdraw the resources from the front -line services is unfair to the staff and the bad for patients. ”
The Treasury said the government was considering the recommendations and responded in due time.
