Dear GMB Member,
The GMB has published a major new report on the future of public sector pay and we are writing today to ask you to support the campaign launched by your union titled ‘GMB Public Services Pay Pinch Campaign’.
The GMB report makes the case that the 1% pay cap is deeply unfair on individual workers, and that it is a major contributor to the recruitment and retention crisis across public services.
This week’s announcement of a snap General Election in June has only made this even more important, and gives us a real chance to make public sector pay a key issue.
As Theresa May has said, “if your pay has stagnated for several years in a row and fixed items of spending keep going up, it doesn’t feel like the economy’s working for you.”
GMB believes that Ministers need to stop asking public sector staff to pay the price for the mistakes of the financial sector over a decade after the banking crash.
The GMB represents all sectors across public services from care staff to refuse staff. From teaching assistants to paramedics and everything in between. If you deliver services for the public, the GMB is your union in your workplace.
The GMB recently commissioned a poll and it turns out the public agree: 75% want a real-terms pay rise for public sector workers this year and it’s time the Government stops and listens.
And the GMB report exposes the fact that the pinch on your salaries is even more severe than the public sector pay squeezes under Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
Brexit is pushing inflation up, costing the average full-time worker an extra £1,426 in lost earnings by 2020 if the 1% cap isn’t lifted.
Enough is enough. That’s why GMB is taking the message to the Government that they must change course. After seven years of pay cuts, only a real pay rise will do.
You can read the report and sign the petition by visiting www.paypinch.org
Our key demands of the campaign are as follows:
• No ifs, no buts – an end to public sector pay cuts, and no extension of policies that target public sector workers.
• Proper funding settlements so public services can remain high-quality and free at the point of use.
• Restore the independence of the public sector Pay Review Bodies.
• Pay a real Living Wage of at least £10 an hour to all public sector workers
Best wishes,
Rehana Azam
National Secretary, GMB Public Services Section
Posted: 28th April 2017