U.K.
(March 2017) The latest government budget has been criticised by the TUC confederation and public service trade unions for offering nothing to public service workers who have seen their pay frozen or falling in real terms over the past 10 years. The PCS civil service union is organising a day of protest on 31 March and is calling for a 5% pay increase or £1200 a year (€1380) whichever is greater.
(May 2017) The UNISON public services union warns of a recruitment crisis in public services if public sector pay restraint is continued. UNISON quotes a new report from the independent Insitute of Fiscal Studies which say that if public sector pay continues to fall compared to pay in the private sector, the public sector will struggle to recruit and retain the workers it needs to deliver public services, and the quality of those services will therefore be at risk.
Public service federations, including FSC-CCOO and FeSP-UGT, have welcomed a new three-year agreement that could deliver pay increases of more than 9% by the end of 2024. Following government imposed pay rises of only 0.9% in 2021 and initially only 2% in 2022, unions pushed the government to open negotiations and respond to the cost-of-living crisis. There will now be an additional 1.5% increase in 2022 backdated to January. In 2023 there will be an increase of 2.5% but two further increases of 0.5% will follow depending on the level of inflation and economic output. There will also be a 2.0%
Public service union ver.di has welcomed the fact that the federal government has finally confirmed that the April 2023 collective agreement for employees in federal and local government should now be applied retroactively to federal civil servants, judges, soldiers and pension recipients. The union has been frustrated about such a long delay at a time of high costs for food, energy and housing. It wants to ensure that at the end of the current negotiations covering employees in regional government, its provisions are applied immediately to the 1.4 million civil servants and 1 million pension
