"Pay freeze for public sector workers is a political choice"

"PAY FREEZE FOR PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS IS A POLITICAL CHOICE"

A letter headed 'Pay row memory lane' (Leader, November 27) is rather selective with the memories it chooses to share, regarding pay in the public sector.

The pay freeze for public sector workers is a political choice and shows that this government have learnt nothing from their past mistakes having inflicted public services with 10 years of austerity.

Yes, within this settlement the lowest paid in local government will get a £250 pay rise although it is unclear if this is consolidated at this time, this equates to just a pound a day before tax.

This comes on the back of 10 years of pay restraint in the public sector many years capped at 1% pay increases and several years with no increase at all.

The public sector has not been immune to job losses either, over the past eight years there have been over 40,000 jobs lost in local government alone, and yet these are the very people who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic keeping our communities running and our most vulnerable people looked after.

Care workers earn little more than the minimum wage, school support staff keeping schools open, benefits staff assisting with a huge increase in claims, business support grants processed, environmental health officers key to the track and trace programme, cleaners keeping our premises safe and clean, refuse workers keeping our rubbish collected and thousands of food parcels collated and distributed for those shielding, the list goes on...

If this government had not inflicted 10 years of severe austerity on public services, they would have been in a better position to be prepared for the pandemic and there would have been no need for the sudden impact of rushed and wasted spending that has taken place by the Westminster Government.

The PPE contract cost £12bninstead of £2bn, English track and trace programme £22bn and failing to produce results, eat out to help out £849bn, increase in defence spending of £16.5bn after 10 years of cuts, trident £205bn, tax evasion £50bn, Brexit festival £29m, not to mention the fact that Brexit has already cost more than we have ever paid into the EU, a leading supermarket received £22m in covid business relief, despite taking more money than ever and queues at the door, they then paid out £22m to shareholders in dividends!

There is plenty of money for Tory chums, and fat cat financiers, there is money for war, but not for the poor, further cuts to benefits will plunge even more people into poverty the Trussel Trust claims that food parcels are now being handed out at one every nine seconds.

Public services and the people that provide them are undervalued and underfunded and will continue to be so by this government, yet they are the ones that everyone relies on at times of crisis, not hedge fund managers, stockbrokers, and the super wealthy.

The public and private sectors work side by side, the public sector is the biggest customer of some private businesses and it is wrong that the people working in the public sector pay the price for this pandemic having just suffered the costs of paying for the financial crisis of 2008.

This pandemic has demonstrated the importance of public services and the value that should be attached to them and their employees.

Clapping on the doorstep to say thanks is great but that doesn't pay for the services, investment in services and the staff that provide them is vital.

Sarah Taylor, Branch Secretary, Unison Flintshire